Christmas Bauble

I've always wanted to try one of these . . . and I had some Fabscraps left overs from my Christmas zigzag book so a perfect opportunity. But having finished one (the smaller one) I decided it needed a larger one, so had to break out more paper . . . lucky I still had some one hand.

Thought beads were a sparkly alternative to bows.

Polka Dots - week 38

Simply less is more is having a polka dot week. Got to love it!


I spotted my May Arts ribbon sitting on the shelf begging to be used for this! And as I'd been playing with my Stampin' Up butterflies, I knew one was dotty.

and a close-up

Clean&Simple FTL163 - Take 4

On a roll with the sketch at clean and simple stamping:

While I was playing with my Distress Stains, I saw that you could make a real big splatter!

Such fun . . . playing with abandon! Some of my favourite distress colours : tumbled glass, crushed olive and faded jeans. I printed the sentiment as I didn't have the stamp.

Clean&Simple FTL163 - Take 3

Just loved this sketch at clean and simple stamping, so just kept playing:

A simplier version of the buttefly . . . counting the 2 gems as the other 2 items.

Clean&Simple FTL163 - Take 2

Just loved this sketch at clean and simple stamping, I had to keep playing:

I turned it on it's side, and got :

Clean&Simple FTL163 - Take 1

Just loved this sketch at clean and simple stamping:

I had been playing around with my new Distress Stains and my new Hero Arts Flower Dot Pattern stamp, so I had sheets of it around. Punched out the butterflies (Stampin' Up) and stamped the sentiment (Stampin' Up).

OLW69 - Stripes

Love stripes and so took up the OLW (One Layer Wednesday) challenge from Julie at Styles Ink. I knew which stamp I wanted to use . . . but the mojo had different ideas and I came up with this instead. 

It is a single candle stamp (so old I can't even remember where it's from - a cling with no details) and the sentiment from 2 different Hero Arts stamps.

MAGENTA Blog Candy

Magenta is giving some blog candy . . . click here to be in with a chance!

Magenta Sketch

I have been eyeing the Magenta Sketch for awhile.

Here's my take on it (using 2 of Magenta papers . . . cutting the scrolls). Punched out circles from the actual name place settings and menus in addition to lots of blues and greens.

As I like double page spreads, I did a vertical take on the same layout moving it off-centre.

Getting Triangular!

My submission for the OLW68 : Get triangular challenge on Susan's Simplicity Blog. This card didn't start out for this challenge. Just stamped the Merry Christmas (à la Susan), coloured it and gave it a shadow but then spotted the bird and added 2 of those! Both are Inkadinkadoo stamps.


So 3 stamped images, 3 blings, and a skewed triangle.

Take two

More for the combined challenge of CAS-ual Fridays and Play Date Cafe's Operation Julie's Smile.


Take two with my go-to colours, blues and greens and Club Scrap stamps with distress inks . . .

Missed Deadlines . . . but there's new challenges

I started playing with some of my quote stamps for the OLW67 challenge but I pondered too long and missed the deadline! But then I saw that I could submit for the combined challenge of CAS-ual Fridays and Play Date Cafe's Operation Julie's Smile.

So here's the first card . . . 

The missed OLW67 challenge (only ONE layer) of a quote, all stamps from Club Scrap . . .

Quote inspiration for Julie's Smile

For the combined challenge of CAS-ual Fridays and Play Date Cafe's Operation Julie's Smile. Today, I had the help of my friend, Bronwyn, who has the gift of mixing the right colours, I (I mean she) came up with pinks and oranges, still with Club Scrap Stamps  . . .

I love the quote and butterfly from the Unity Stamps, so had to use that too, in pinks and greens for my mother, with the flourish leaves from Club Scrap and tiny flowers from Hero Arts. This one was coloured using Copics so needed to layer it  . . .

 and in radical purple and orange (thanks again Bronwyn!) using Prismacolour crayons . . .

Hearts

Been on a roll today . . .  17 cards. Starting with the "Less is More" Week 36 Challenge of one layer CAS hearts. I was inspired by Susan Raihala's cards here and here. Love the few lines of text & keeping it simple . . . and she makes it look easy (which I know from experience that it's not!).


So my first take . . . (which I think is my favourite) uses 2 Hero Arts stamps with script from Club Scrap (only inked about a third of it)

I then thought of my "thinking of you" dictionary definitions by Hero Arts and wanted to try that one too. Needed to add the 2 gems to balance it out a bit.

Lastly, wanted to use the hanging hearts too. Added Martha Stewart sticky ribbon - so easy to use!

Gratitude Challenge

Thank you Susan from Simplicity who has a wonderful Gratitude Challenge going . . . actually sending cards to those people we would like to thank for their contribution, encouragment, or whatever to our lives.


I've made my list, and here are my first 2 :

Distress inks on quite glossy paper - quite a challenge as it doesn't get absorbed.

Spritzed with perfect pearls - lovely shine to it. And the green background is stamped with HA friend definition, and the blue top part with HA Flower Dot pattern.

And the second is :

Flower is quite an old stamp from Clarity in the UK. Thank You definition from Hero Arts, and the tags from Stampin'Up.

Stamp Storage

Susan at Simplicity was discussing storage and organisation of stamps.


My wood ones are on thin shelves organised in 5 major areas :
1. kids, people, animals, fairies
2. Christmas
3. Flowers
4. Words
5. Flourishes, scripts, sea and backgrounds


So easy to find things as they each have their place.


People, kids, animals, fairies on the left panel, Christmas on the right :

Flowers :

Words :

Background, flourish, scripts, sea, sports : 

My clear and cling collection are not so big, so they are in 2 shoe boxes with divisions : flowers, patterns, mixed messages (words and pictures), words, alphabets and Christmas.

I had started an inventory file, but got too bored stamping them all out  . . . I'd rather be creating. So I stopped.

And I'm happy.