Hello ... missing you

A quick card for the Retro Sketches Challenge :

I did a mirror image of the sketch as my bird was facing that way ...

I will also enter this to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge : Anything Goes! and to The Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge

Happy New Home

Oh how I love it when a plan comes together!

I love this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. The extra twist was to keep it clean-lined and fresh. I hope my rainbow brightness counts for that.

My first idea was to use watercolours to create the squares. Then I had to work out what to put in the squares and I was leafing through my dies and spotted my new (and never been used) Simon Says Stamp Quadrangle Frames. OK, so that was still just a frame, so what next? Need something small, and found these rather neglected Quickutz dies from the days when we still used that 2" squeeze machine (can't even remember what it was called!). The little house struck a chord as my daughter has just moved into her new apartment. Perfect!

I popped the little dies on foam and gave them all swish of Wink of Stella ... lovely shimmer.

I will also enter this to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge : Anything Goes!

Heart 2 : Wedding

My second card for the Heart Challenge at CAS-ology is a wedding one. Simple and elegant ... die cut with my Silhouette. The sentiment is embossed with Platinum EP and the card stock behind is Cement by American Crafts ... one of my current favourites.

Heart 1 : Caution ... Much love inside

So happy to see the Heart Challenge at CAS-ology this week. I have wanted to make a special card for my niece as they have recently moved from South Africa to London, and so far away from us all.

I definitely wanted to put a little surprise in the card, and what better way than using the Zipper Panel die from Ellen Hutson. So what to put in? ...

Why, some love of course!

So watercoloured some cardstock and die cut using my Silhouette.

Sewed them together with some patterned paper to make hanging garlands.

Wrapped them around some cardstock so that they wouldn't get all knotted in the post.

Then popped them under the panel, which was inspired by this painted rock! I drew a black heart from the negative of my die cut heart (for my next heart card) and doodled and painted. The sentiment is from Club Scrap and I just love it!

Of course, my "love bundle" inside was quite thick, so one layer of foam would not have been enough. So I die cut the 4 colours that went with the card to make a deep pocket.

I will also enter this into The Daily Marker's 30 Day Colouring Challenge.

Muse Challenge #139

The layering stamps are all the rage and Tracey has given us such a pretty card for inspiration at the Muse Challenge.

I focused on ...

• the layered stamps
• colour combination
• layout
• gold embossed sentiment

Runway Inspiration

Such a lovely soft inspiration from Runway Inspiration this week.

I went with the lacy look and the green leaves with a white background. I embossed the lacy stamp and Birthday sentiment with white embossing on kraft cardstock. I green comes out very dark in the photo.

Hello ...

I've been wanting to use these birds for a while now. I coloured them a few weeks back, but just knew how I wanted to use them when I saw the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch #146.

I will also enter this into The Daily Marker's 30 Day Colouring Challenge.

Ombre Times

I was playing with Hero Arts Ombre Inks. I was testing the range of colours with the lovely Hero Arts stamp. When I used the blues, I loved the effect.

I need another sympathy card - this time a more masculine one. Added the dragonflies in the reverse ink order, and a touch of pp.  Thought it would make a peaceful card for someone grieving.

Entering this to Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday Challenge.

Peace

Playing with new stamps, Inktense pencils, wink of Stella and dies.

Entering the following challenges ...

... Simon Says Stamp : Clean & Simple Christmas

... Virginia's View Challenge : All things Coloured

and

... Kathy's The Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge

Hello Sunshine

I loved Joan's watercolour inspiration at Muse Challenge, and had to use those bright colours. 

I focused on :

• Her watercolour background
• Layout and and flower placement
• White embossed sentiment

Sympathy ... 3

It's been a really long time since I've used this stamp, but it was perfect for the Retro Sketch Challenge.

Also my last entry to Just Us Girls Sympathy Challenge.

Sympathy ... 2

I wanted a really soft card for my husband's aunt. It is really difficult to lose a child, even if the "child" is 60 years old. My heart, thoughts and prayers go out to her.

Another entry to ...

... Just Us Girls Sympathy Challenge

... Retro Sketch #184 Challenge

... The Daily Marker30 Day Colouring Challenge

Sympathy ... 1

It's sad when we need sympathy cards, and I need quite a few at the moment.

I will submit this to ...

... Just Us Girls : Sympathy Challenge

and

... CAS(E) This Sketch #134 Challenge

Album Finished!

Whew! Finally finished the wedding album my friend asked me to do. I love making cards and layouts in the style that the receiver would like. She loves simple yet vintage look ... lots of lace, pearls and flourishes in creams, white. So I grabbed some white, cream and vanilla cardstock and went straight to my Silhouette. Cut out lots of scrolls, flourishes, roses, frames and words. Then I got script & flourish stamps, ribbons, lace, embossing powder and pearls and was ready to go.

 I can't share the pages with the photos, but here are some sneak peeks.

Loved the soft look of pearl embossing powder giving a tone on tone look.

I used vellum with the the Hero Arts medallion embossing folder, then fussy cut it and topped with Silhouette cut flourishes, lace and pearls.

I loved how this page turned out ... the Penny Black scroll border was the perfect touch at the bottom of the photo.

The next page I used a lot of different embossing folders and inlayed Silhouette die cuts.

More embossing, lace, Silhouette print and cuts ...

Silhouette cut wedding rings. This was a wonderful shimmer gold cardstock from Club Scrap.

For the page coming out of the church, confetti shaker tags!

The Silhouette does amazingly fine cuts.

The roses ... and great that you can vary the sizes.

Wonderful sentiment from Penny Black ... with vellum over to make it soft.

For the pictures under the rain and umbrellas.

Embossed paper and die cuts.

One of my absolutely favourite flourish stamps from Inkadinkado. So light and lovely.

And couldn't resist using the WPlus9 peonies.

Now I had better start my wedding album (even though I have been married for 26 years!)