Soft Blues

For Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge : "B", which for me is Blue and Butterflies!

Also for Hero Arts Challenge : Nature.

Spring Sunshine

A Spring card for my daughter in Sweden. She has just spent the weekend up in Lapland, seeing the Northern Lights, dog sledding, snow-mobiling, great expanses of snow ...
Back in Uppsala now, and I'm sure she's ready for some spring sunshine.

Less is More Challenge : Yellow and Green.

More no-line watercolouring ... and the lovely Penny Black "Softly" stamp. Hardest part was drawing the lines.

Colouring Day 2

The whole "Sabrina" stamp had a cake to go with it. My 10 minutes took me this far ....

Colouring Day 1

I've joined in Kathy's 30 Day Coloring challenge.

I'm have so many uninked stamps and I hope to make some headway in using them in these 30 days. This one is Sabrina Fashionista from Unity Stamps.

As I go through this colour challenge, I would appreciate any suggestions and tips on what I could improve in my colouring. Like ... where you put the light...

I am more happy with her hair than her dress - especially the bodice.

Thank you Bronwyn for sharing some of your Martha Stewart sprinkles! Just perfect for this card ... and the Inspirational : Sprinkle Challenge.

WIll also enter this to ...

... ATS : CAS Anything Goes Challenge, and

... Simon Says Wednesday Challenge : Special Lady/Girly.

Spring Peonies

I made a pizza box of 9 little cards as a present for my friend's Birthday ... I know she loves the soft, romantic look, so soft pinks and WP9 Peonies were perfect. The box was cut on the Silhouette.

I made the same design, but altered the sentiments.

And made matching envelopes.

I will enter this to the Spring Challenge at Paper Players, and at Diva's that Cut.

Words....

Susan is hosting the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge : Words, Words, Words this month. The only stamps we can use are word stamps.

I was inspired by one of Ann Voskamp's Framables

Gathered a bunch of word stamps .... most of these are Hero Arts, just one is Papertrey Ink.
This was my first attempt ... thinking about sending it to my mother ... she loves pink. I coloured the hello with Prismacolours and I like the shading.

I wasn't so happy about the placement of the "hugs & kisses" stamp .... and of course, it was the last one I stamped. Also I thought it needed at least one other pink stamp too. I hesitated about whether to try again, but decided I had better make the effort.

Second card didn't even make it to be photographed - dropped my second inked sentiment!

OK. So take a deep breath and try again ... hopefully third time lucky.

I couldn't colour with the Prismacolours this time as I had no pencils that matched the pink ink I had used for the "Hey", so no shading. But I added Glossy Accents.

Still can't decide which one I prefer. What's your opinion?

Spring

Spring ... and my February CCC card.  I went with the colour theme (orange is a little out of my comfort zone, but peach is doable!) and sketch.

You can see all the other cards sent on the February Card Chain Reveal.
Come and sign up for the April CCC Challenge.

I will also enter this to the  ...

... Paper Players : Spring Challenge

... ... Diva's that Cut : Spring Challenge

Happiness 3

The third in the No Line Watercolouring cards ... and I think this is my favourite.

Same butterfly ... this time with Salty Ocean and Peacock Feather.

It glows ... sigh. True happiness!

The butterfly panel is mounted on foam to give dimension. I left a gap on purpose so the shimmery silver paper just shines through.

This really is happiness for me ...

... butterflies

... blue, turquioise

... embossing folders

... CAS

... Distress inks / Stains

So another entry for ...

... LIM : This makes me happy Challenge

... Hero Arts : Nature Challenge

... Addicted to Cas : Distress Challenge

...  A2zscrapping : Colour it in Challenge
... Virginia's View : Embossing Challenge.

[Postscript added :
I retracted my submission to Paper Players : Spring Challenge as I had entered more than the allowed maximum 3 challenges. Apologies that I had not read their challenge instructions in full.
This corrects my entry to LIM Challenge, as I've now entered only the maximum 5 challenges.]

Happiness 2

This is my second card using the No Line Watercolouring technique (if you missed the first, you can see it here). I used the Hero Arts Butterfly. As this is a very arty technique and you sort of have to go with the flow, it was quite difficult to try and get the 2 wings to match. Not a perfect job, but a good first try.

The small frame behind the turquoise one, has been embossed. It was Jacqueline's card that gave me the idea of making an embossed frame. Didn't want it too big as I wanted to keep it as light as possible.

I will enter this for ...

... Hero Arts : Nature Challenge

... Diva's that Cut : Spring Challenge

... a2zScrapping Challenge : Colour it in

... Simon Says Stamp : Work it Wednesday

...Virginia View Challenge : Embossing

Happiness 1

You know when you look at someone's card, and you think to yourself "How did they do that?". Well, that happened to me when I saw Donna's Spectacular card on the Tag! You're It Challenge last week. So I went off to her blog to find out and she shared the video link to instructions by Tasnim for a "no line" watercolouring technique. It was all new to me.

But I so love trying a new technique. First thing you need is an outline stamp that has some detail lines inside. So a quick whiz through my stash and I decided on 3 stamps - because I had seen that you had to do this in stages - so while the first was drying I could start the next image. This is not a technique that can be rushed!

So here is the first card using the Large Flower from Hero Arts - so versatile - the last card I made with this was so different. I used Antique Linen to stamp the images. I didn't want to use all the detail lines of the flower (it would take ages), so I grouped them in parts. However, you can see some of the lines showing through. I'm not sure why some showed through, and others didn't.

A close up of the painted lines. I used Picked Raspberry and Dusty Concord for the petals, Ripe Persimmon for the centre; Mowed Lawn and Shabby Shutters for the leaves.

I had so much fun. I'm entering this to the Less is More : This makes me happy Challenge....
... new techniques
... flowers
... CAS
... Distress Inks

I'll also enter it to ...
Hero Arts : Nature Challenge

Addicted to Cas : Distress Challenge

A2zscrapping : Colour it in Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Wed : Anything Goes Challenge

[Postscript added : I retracted my submission to Paper Players Challenge as I had entered more than the allowed maximum 3 challenges. Apologies that I had not read their challenge instructions in full.
This corrects my entry to LIM Challenge, as I've now entered only the maximum 5 challenges.]