Thank you Butterfly

Welcome

I was recently asked to make a large thank you card that would take a lot of signatures, and this is the result.  I started with an A4 sheet of card and simply folded it in half - which made a card double my 'normal' size.

The butterfly is a Tim Holtz sizzix die cut, that was part of a package I received for an online class I took in January.  I had coloured it using Inca Gold Pastes in Gold, bronze and silver.

The sentiment is formed by stickers that I have had for years.... I am not a great fan of stickers, but this was one occasions I was glad of them. 

The background  panel was made by using molding paste through a stencil onto water colour paper.  It was coloured first with watercolour paint, and then some inks, finishing with Perfect Blue Perfect Pearls spray, and some silver shimmer spray.  The camera only picked up the blues, when IRL it is a gorgeous light turquoise with some hints of light brown accenting the vines. 

The panel was mounted onto dark green card to give a frame, and the card base itself is a lovely cream colour, rather than the light tan the camera captured.

The pearls on the body of the butterfly were the final touch.

I am linking this to:

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #172 - Anything Goes

Kraftin' Kimmies Wonderful Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Whimsy Stamps Inspires Challenge # 80 - Use a Sentiment

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Scrapper's Delights Challenge #41 - Anything Goes

Mod Squad Challenge - Spring Forward

Inspiration Destination Challenge #22 - Anything Goes

Crafting For All Seasons Challenge #96 - Dies or Punches

Crafter's Cafe Challenge #105 - Lots of Layers

Dazzling Divas Challenge #64 - Add some texture

Thank you for visiting my blog

Any comments you may leave are deeply appreciated

May your day be blessed.

Washi, bling and a Flower

Welcome

I would like to welcome my latest follower Kelly Deal - thank you for your support Kelly. Unfortunately I cannot find a blog to invite you to visit her.

I have had a busy time in the studio now I have got back there, and this is one of the results.

I started another card with the same gray base card and green paper, from the Prima pad Fairy Fauna, and had almost finished when I binned it after salvaging some of the elements, and started again....

(Of course none of you readers would ever do that!)

I overlapped the washi taped banners to add some subtle interest, without dominating the card.

The flower is a Poinsettia from Kiwistamping.  The local company that is responsible for my addiction to stamping and card making.  This was one of my earliest stamps, purchased way back,  longer than I care to remember.

I stamped and embossed it three times on patterned paper, then fussy cut and layered it using dimensional foam dots. 

On the top layer I also cut out some of the petals.

The sentiment was also embossed onto the gray card and embossed in green, cut using a s/b tag, sponged and adhered to the base with gem brads. All the paper and card was sponged with Bundled Sage DI.

The finishing detail was the green rhinestones.

I am linking this to:

The Pink Elephant Challenge #287 - Anything Goes

Simon Says Monday Challenge - Anything Goes

Melsonheadz Friends Challenge - Die Cuts

Lawnscaping Challenge - Birthday

Get Creative Challenge #9 - Use Embossing

Eureka Stamps Challenge #129 - Birthday

Crafty Boots Feburary Challenge - Use a sentiment

Craft Your Passion Challenge #250 - Anything Goes

Crafting From the Heart Challenge #48 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #171 - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting my blog

Any comments you may leave are deeply appreciated

May your day be blessed

Colour Change Dots

Welcome.

I finally managed to spend an afternoon in the studio (life has been conspiring against me recently,) and I completed several cards, this one amongst them.

I started with the Whole Lotta Dots  border stamp by Reverse Confetti. Stamped with Versamark ink and then rubbed chalks over it in graduated colours.

I then stamped the lighthouse from an ODBD set Keep My Lamp Burning in Memento Rich Cocoa Ink, after masking off some of the edges to make it fit on the card.

Here is a close up of the chalked dots - the sentiment is an old Hero Arts stamp, and I made the tag myself, rounding the corners with a punch, and using bakers twine to 'suspend' it.

The final detail was the bakers twine to the right of the image.  Both the white layer and the blue base were edged by running the card over a blue ink pad.

I am linking this to:

Through The Craft Room Door Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafty Calendar Feburary Challenge - Anything Goes

Stempelsonne Challenge - Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge #94 - Anything Goes

Simply Create Too Challenge #79 - Anything Goes

Craft F'or the Craic - Happy Birthday

Art By Miran Challenge #26 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #171 - Anything Goes

Showcase Your Style Challenge #9 - Birthday

Thank you for visiting my blog

Any comments you may leave are deeply appreciated

May your day be blessed

Welcoming Butterfly

Welcome.

I so enjoyed working with the Bugaboo butterfly for the CCC Digi Challenge that I made another card with it, this time to welcome a German visitor. 

I changed the size to what I wanted, and again used my prismacolor pencils to colour it.

A thick layer of stickles was placed around the wings,

and a wee touch added to the leaves.

The sentiment was printed onto vellum and embossed in silver, the edges of the vellum were torn, and the ends wrapped around the edges of the white panel.

The corners of the white layer were punched, and the edges sponged with Broken China DI.

The final touches were the sequins.

I am linking this to:

Creative Craft Cottage Challenge #33 - In The Garden

Happy Little Stampers CAS Feb. Challenge - Embossing

Digis Galore Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafts Galore Encore Feb. Challenge - Use a Stamp or Digi

Card and Scrap Challenge #91 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #171 - Anything Goes

Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Loves Rubber Stamps Challenge #139 - Let it Sparkle

Digi Chooseday Challenge Week #7 - springtime/pastels

Cuttin' and Stampin' Challenge #8 - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting my blog

Any comments you may leave are deeply appreciated

May your day be blessed

A Bugaboo Butterfly and Stripes

Welcome

It's time once again for a new CCC Digi Challenge, and this time it is to use a 

digi-image and stripes on your card.

Bugaboo are our wonderful sponsors this month,

and I chose this gorgeous butterfly to work with.

I sized it to what I wanted - one of the joys of working with digistamps - printed it onto white cardstock and coloured it with my Prismacolor pencils, then added stickles for some subtle sparkle. 

 When it was all done (and dry) I cut it with a s/b floral oval die, and sponged with Memento Blue Danube ink before removing the die.

The base of dark green cardstock was embossed using the s/b Lovely Lattice folder, and I then smudged some Inca Gold Silver paste onto the raised flowers.

The sentiment was embossed in bronze, cut with a s/b ribbon label and again sponged before removing the die.  This was then layered with gold ribbon over some striped paper from the Kaisercraft "After Five" pad.

I am linking this to:

Crafty Challenge February Challenge - Anything Goes

Stempelsonne Challenge - Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge #93 - Anything Goes

Simply Create Too Challenge #79 - Anything Goes

Frosted Designs Challenge - Get Messy 2x 

(sponging ink and smudging the silver paste)

Creative Fingers Challenge #67 - Anything Goes

Craft For The Craic - Birthday or Anniversary

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #4 - Anything goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #170 - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting my blog,

 any comments you may leave are deeply appreciated.

May your day be blessed

Blues and circles

Welcome

This card was made for a commission by a friend.  One of the things she mentioned when requesting the card was that the recipient loves blue, so I started at that point.  I was also inspired by the current sketch at Stamplorations

I started with a piece of paper that has spent a couple of years at least in the bottom of my 'spray box', and as I had until recently only a lemon, blue and silver glimmer sprays, it has a very deep sheen on it of these colours - I cut the paper to use a section of the mostly blue area, but it looks more silver in the photos.  I ran it through an embossing folder called Grunge Dots.

I then lined up two pieces of double sided tape, removed the backing and applied blue glitter on it.  I used some metallic waste to layer over that again

Next came the vellum, which is a pale blue, and embossed in a script folder.

The scripture is one from Word Art Wednesday, which I die cut, embossed and sponged, then layered over a scalloped rectangle. 

The sentiment was silver embossed, then I cut it to a rectangle, put masking tape around the edge and sponged it, before using the scalloped die 'creatively' to be able to match the other panel.

The finishing touch were the three flat back pearls.

I am linking this to:

Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Creative Card Crew Challenge #80 - Glitter

Sprinkle and Sparkle February Challenge - Used Loose Glitter

Not Just Cards Challenge#12 - Anything Goes

Craft Creations Challenge - Anything Goes

Incy Wincy Designs - Use a Punch or Die Cut

Crafting From The Heart Challenge #46 - Anything Goes

Craft Your Passion Challenge #248 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #169 - Anything Goes

Stamplorations Sketch Challenge #27

My sincere thanks once again for visiting my blog.

Any comments you may leave are deeply appreciated.

May your day be blessed

Not Really CAS

Welcome.

I love this card because at first glance it has the look of a CAS (Clean and Simple) card, in reality, it was anything but.

And I had fun making it, which was most important!

I started with a "new to me" stamp, and stamped it in Timber Brown Staz On ink, as I knew I wanted to play with various mediums over it, and did not want the ink to run.

I coloured around the leaves with a water colour pencil, and blended it sightly.

Painted the daisy with gold perfect pearls and then an orange pencil for the centre.

The centre of the large flower was coloured using the perfect pearls, and the petals with Perfect Passion Glamour Glaze.

The whole panel was then sprayed with Perfect Red Perfect Pearl spray.

I could not capture the wonderful shimmer with the camera, 

but is is there and it is gorgeous IRL!

The edge was then cut using an S/B edgabilities die set, and the red card was cut to correspond.

The feature panel was mounted over the purple card, the ribbon added, and then layered onto the white base, with the sentiment embossed in gold.

I am linking this to:

Kraftin' Kimmie Wonderful Wednesday Challenge- Anything Goes

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - All Things Bright and Beautiful

Stamping Royalty Challenge #265 - To DIE For

Crafting By Design February Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafter's Cafe challenge #102 - Birthday

Creative Whispers Challenge #40 - Anything Goes

Seize the Birthday Challenge - Anything Goes

Sassy Studio Dare To Be Sassy Challenge #267 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #169 - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting - any comments you may leave are deeply appreciated

May your day be blessed

One Heart

Welcome

This card came together quite quickly - after it convinced me that it wanted to look like this, which is not how I had initially planned it!

It is basically a Z-fold card with a die half cut in the centre, and then the fancy cut layered over it. I used the s/b die set Swirled Heart

I used the fancy die as a stencil and sponged Versamark ink over it, then embossed it with silver. The extra texture was was a "creative opportunity". 

 

The sentiment is an old one that I have used repeatedly, and here I silver embossed it

The paper is from an old pad, Romantique by Prima - it was one of my first purchases of a pad of design paper.

This is the card opened out. 

 The detailing comprised the rhinestones - which represent the years of the marriage, and a glitter purple pen run around the edge of the dp - it gives a subtle sheen to the edges. I must admit that this was another case of a "creative opportunity"

I am linking this to:

Oh La La Challenge #173 - Love

Craft Creations - Anything Goes

Melonheadz Challenge - Hearts, Love

House of Cards February Challenge - Love

Crafting From the Heart Challenge #45 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #168 - Anything Goes

Unruly Paper Arts February Challenge - Inspiration Prompt, Heartfelt 

The Paper Girls Challenge #73 - Anniversary

Love To Scrap Challenge #47 - Love is in the Air 

Craft Your Passion Challenge #247 - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting - any comments you may leave are deeply appreciated

May your day be blessed

Chugga Chugga Birthday

Welcome - today I have another post for the CCC Digi Challenge, 

and this time our sponsor is 

Oak Pond Creations

I chose this image, the Oak Pond Train.

The challenge is to use a digi and your favourite colour, which for me is green.

The image was printed out and coloured with watercolours and also some Viva Gold Pastes in Gold, silver and bronze. The image was then fussy cut and mounted on foam dots to give some dimension.

You can see some of the sparkle on this photograph.  I created a simple scene behind the train using coloured card and chalks, and stamped the sentiment onto the hill above the recipients name.

I used fun flock to add texture to the "smoke clouds".

The sun was one of a pack of foam shapes I have had for ages!

The 'train track' was once a fence die cut with one side trimmed, and then coated in bronze Viva Gold paste, this was mounted over a strip of silver glitter paper, to mimic the gravel usually found under the rails.

I am linking this to:

The Stamping Boutique - Make You Own Background

Stempelsonne Challenge #133 - Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge #91 - Anything Goes

Left of Centre Challenge #63 - One for the Kids

Frosted Designs Friday Challenge - Showing Direction

(The smoke is going backward, indicating the train is moving forward)

Digitally Sweet Challenge #125 - Anything Goes

Crafts 4 Eternity Challenge #211 - No Patterned Paper

Crazy For Challenges # 271 - Masculine Birthday

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #168 - Anything Goes

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends Challenge #3 - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting - any comments you may leave are deeply appreciated

May your day be blessed.