Warm & Fuzzie

So warm and fuzzy about winning one of the Fabulous 5 for June on the Hero Arts Blog! (See here) I had such fun making this card. One of those light bulb moments when I just "saw" the clouds as sheep. And then I found the perfect message from the clear stamp set CL342 Everyday Sayings. And I certainly need something warm right now - it's freezing here - well as freezing as a tropical island can get - 15°C and there's no heating!

Missed Dodo Scrapchicks

I was so sorry to miss the last Dodo Scrapchicks session. I enjoyed the layout so much, could not let it go by. So stayed up Wed night to finish it. I turned the LO on it's side as I wanted to make a facing page and wanted it to flow. Thanks Nadine for your choice!

Not simply Masking

Oh I do so love Simplicity by LateBlossom and this week has been masking on one layer. Although I kept strictly to the one layer policy, I went a bit wild with the stamping. Well, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do! Sigh! One day I'll be doing simply stunning cards, but in the meantime here's mine :

I used the silhouette flowers of Hero Arts cut on the Silhouette machine as the mask.

And I had such fun, I had to make another :

Used another cutout from Silhouette machine - flower 1020 - which I sponged with Tumbled Glass and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks and then stamped with HeroArts Antique Bocade in Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

9 Ways with 1 Stamp

I took one of the Hero Arts silhouette stamps (Silhouette Meadow Flowers see here) and tried 9 different techniques. With the exception of No. 7, I started with white card.

1. 
   
   Stamped in Sky Blue Colorbox pigment ink, then added a script stamp in Hero Arts Soft Sand, and finally added black shadow lines with a fineliner
2. 
   
   Stamped in Sky Blue Colorbox pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder, then stamped the script inked with Faded Jeans and Forest Moss Distress Ink, and then sponged the unembossed areas with Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive, Tumbled Glass, Broken China and Faded Jeans Distress Inks, and lastly wiped with a dried wet wipe.
3. 
   
   Stamped the script in Hero Arts Soft Sand first, then stamped silhouette stamp in Sky Blue Colorbox pigment ink and embossed with iridescent embossing powder, then sponged with pink,m purple, green and blue from Tsukineko Kaleidacolor Pastel Pad. I had thought the dye ink might stain the sparkles, but was happy to see that it didn't.
4. 
   
   Stamped the script in Hero Arts Soft Sand first, then stamped silhouette stamp using the graded Pastel Colorbox option pad and embossed with clear embossing powder, then applied the Faded Jeans directly to the image, and lastly wiped with a dried wet wipe.
5. 
   
   Stamped the script in Hero Arts Soft Sand first, then inked the silhouette stamp with Colorbox lavender and inked HA Starburst with Royal Blue and stamp-kissed repeatedly inking before each kiss; then stamped the silhouette stamp and embossed with clear embossing powder.
6. 
   
   Stamped in Sky Blue Colorbox pigment ink and embossed with Blue Pearl embossing powder twice. Added dots of Blue Liquid Pearls to centres.
7. 
   
   Started with turquoise card. Stamped with Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder.
8. 
   
   Stamped HA Friends Definition stamp with Fired Brick Distress Ink, then stamped the silhouette stamp with Versamark and embossed with clear Embossing powder, then applied Fired Brick directly to unembossed areas, and lastly wiped with a dried wet wipe.
9. 
   
   Stamped the script in Hero Arts Soft Sand first, then sponged Tea Dye Distress Ink around the edge, then stamped the silhouette stamp with Versamark and embossed with clear Embossing powder, then applied Vintage Photo Distress Ink to unembossed areas and wiped with a dried wet wipe.

And here are the cards I made with each piece. (Have temporarily misplaced number 5, but will add it when I find it - gremlins in my studio!)

Big Ben in London

Made sure I didn't miss London in Vicky's Around the World Challenge (see here if you want to join too.) Her inspiration photo was

and my take on it was

Kept with the red, white and blue as the colours of England (their flag as well as the photo) and had to put in a clock.

Missed Mexico

Oh no! I missed the Mexico deadline for Vicky's around the world challenge (you can go and vote Here for those that were not tardy). The inspiration was

And my take on it is

I used the idea that Tami presented at the Hero Arts Blog here

Happy Scrappy 2 Retreat

It's taken me a few days to blog this as I was exhausted after the full day on Saturday. Sunday was spent recovering and Monday fixing plumbing problems that had been left due to the preparations for the retreat. So here we are : The morning class was making a mini-book with waterfall pages using the delightful papers from Fabscraps.

The afternoon session was focussed on techniques : masking, resist embossing and stamp kissing. We did a tag for each then added photos and a centre strip to make up a layout.

And Christine's

Greek Inspiration

This is done in the nick of time. I think that Vicky's idea of being inspired by photos from around the world is just too good to miss. (See Around the World Challenge and you can vote for your favourite by clicking on ONE star above the chosen one) This time it's Greece and here's the photo

 So my thoughts were . . . blue domes . . . white, white, white . . . and windows. So my take on this is :

I still haven't got photos taken at night right, so I took another one in daylight which shows the colours better

And you can see the window better here

Punches and Bits

I had such fun creating watercolour effect cardstock with the Distress Inks (in this case, Tea Dye and Tumbled Glass) that I couldn't throw any tiny bit away. So I punched out of the left overs and came up with this . . .

National Scrapbooking Day

Although the National Scrapbooking Day is designated by the Americans, it doesn't mean we can't all play along. And the Hero Arts challenge gave me the impetus to get this page done. It's going on the wall at the beach house.