Patchwork Challenge

Welcome

The challenge for this month is my small swap group was to make a 'patchwork' card - there have been some wonderful cards displayed, and I received an exquisite one from my partner.

This was my offering - I have a couple of A4 sized sheets of card that I have covered with paper snippets, ready to use as backgrounds, so I took one and cut out four squares, then 'fiddled' around to get the placement that I liked.

As you can see, there are a myriad of different papers that I used.  I mounted the four squares over a black background, leaving them fractionally apart to give definition.

I also embossed the squares using a geometric folder.

I used the space at the bottom of the card to place and platinum embossed sentiment,  I stamped it on black, the cut a double fishtail end to the piece, and added some silver stitching 

I went through my (rather extensive) stash of card to find a base to assemble the pieces on, and this green was the only colour that really 'worked'  

I added an offcut of the panels to both the inside of the card, and the envelope

I am linking this to:

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #200 - Anything Goes

pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2307 - Anything Goes

Polka Doodles Challenge Week #7 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks # 583 + 584 - Anything Goes

A Gem of a Challenge Week #4 - Anything Goes

Arty Diva's February Challenge - Anything Goes

Pearly Sparkle February Challenge #81- Anything Goes

Pixies Snippets Playground Challenge #448 - Anything Goes using Snippets

Digi Chooseday challenge Week #7 - Anything Goes

Jan's Digi Stamps February Challenge - Anything Goes

Dotty Birthday

Welcome

This is my mid-month reminder post for We Love Stamping - Stencilled Background Challenge,

there is a fabulous prize on offer.. more on that later

I chose to make another birthday card, this time for a young woman, and it is somewhat more vibrant than my first card for the challenge. 

The main image is an Hero Arts Florals, Poppy stamp and Die set, coloured with Polychromo pencils, die cut and adhered to vellum.  I used the wee ladybird to cover the conglomeration of stems at the base

I had started with the green panel and used iridescent medium through a Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz layering stencil Dot Fade

The sentiment was embossed with silver ep, and mounted with foam dots.

The silver strips down the side were added as I had cut the panel down a tad too much... oops

I rounded the corners on all the elements to give a softer look, and the inside was decorated with the ends of the silver strips. 

The prizes for this challenge come from Highlight Crafts and are a stamp set and a die set

I am linking this to:

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2306 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #583 + 584 - Anything Goes

Inkspirational Challenge #283 - Use a Stencil Opt Add Splatters

Beyond the Blue Challenge #80 - Stencil Crazy

Time Out Challenge #232, 9th Birthday - Any Birthday Card

Flourishing Anniversary

Welcome

I had intended posting a couple of days ago, but life caught up with me a bit :)

For those wondering - we had some strong winds and rain here, but no damage.  I did have to wait three days before hearing that family and friends in the affected areas were alright.

This card started with a white die cut I received in a RAK from the lovely Shelly of 

My Creative Rumblings.  It is called Flourishing Blooms cover Plate by SSS.

I painted it using watercolour paints, and added gold paint to the border and flower centres

The sentiment, which was gold embossed, was a magazine freebie.  I layered it over some gold painted card to match the frame

The final details were some gold painted spots in the background, 

which incidentally is dark blue, not black.

I used some narrow, gold dotted washi tape for the inside.

I am linking this to:

Digi Chooseday challenge Week #6 - Anything Goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge # 2306 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #583 + 584 - Anything Goes

Elliebelle's Crafty Wednesday February Challenge - Anything Goes

The Paper Shelter Challenge #541 - Lace and/or Flowers

The Paper Funday February Challenge #50 Anything Goes opt Lots of Layers

Everybody Art Challenge #529 - Hearts/Love

Crafting Happiness Challenge #139 - Love

Jan's Digi Stamps February Challenge - Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamping Monday Challenge - Frame It

The Correct Number...

Welcome

Some of you wanted to see the (correct) 60th Anniversary card, so here it is.

As it was VERY difficult to photograph, there are only two shots

I embossed the panel, with the Altenew Flowers and Leaves 3D folder  using a pink metallic card, and sanded lightly to bring out the 'high points'. This was a tribute to the lady's love of floral work, and mounted it on a metallic blue card base - I used this marine blue card to acknowledge the gent's love of fishing.

The sentiment was embossed using silver ep, and the digits were die cut, from the blue card.  I mounted them onto some cream metallic paper to provide contrast for them to show up. 

I added clear rhinestones on the stamens and centres of the flowers, under the sentiment, and on the digits, to symbolise that is is their 60th (Diamond) anniversary. 

For those of you who made have heard of our weather situation, here is a link to show the progress of the ex Tropical Cyclone currently pounding us - we are pretty much in the centre of the North Is and feeling the effects with strong winds and rain, but are really not as badly hit as so many other areas. 

I am linking this card to:

Jan's Digi Stamps February Challenge - Anything Goes

Digi Chooseday Challenge Week 5 - Anything Goes

Through The Purple Haze Challenge #201 - Anything Goes

Creative Fingers Challenge #248 - Anything Goes

Allies Angels Challenge #67 - Anything Goes

Daring Cardmakers Challenge - All Loved Up

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2306 - Anything Goes

Polka Doodles Challenge Week #6 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #581 + 582 - Anything Goes

Dragonfly Dreams February Challenge - Love

Golden hearts

Welcome

And a very warm welcome to my newest follower Chrissy - a fellow New Zealand crafter, whose wonderful work can be seen here on her beautiful blog.

I was recently asked to make an anniversary card, and this is the result - problem is I didn't confirm with my customer which anniversary, (although I had seen her invitation), and it should have been a diamond anniversary card!! Oops!

Part of my inspiration came from the Inspiration Station graphic, with the simplicity of the image, and the 'floating' hearts.

This was very difficult to photograph, as the main layer is gold.. I cut a rectangle from it using a Peek-a-boo die, then cut out the numbers and letters.

The light gold hearts were a snippet I found in the die packet, and also the red inserts were there, cut from the same red card as the base!!  Bingo!!

As the hearts came in one large "fall", I had to separate them into groups for the card.

The sentiment was a magazine freebie, and I embossed it in red

I added gold washi tape to the white panel inside - this will now be put away for future use... 

I am linking this to:

Try it on Tuesday - All You Need Is Love

  Di's Digi Designs Challenge - Add One Or More Hearts

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2305 - Anything Goes

Get Creative Challenge #118 - Hearts

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #199 - 'Anything Goes

Dragon Fly Dreams February Challenge - Love

Snippets Play Ground Challenge #447

Bizzy Bec's Store February Challenge - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #581+582 - Anything Goes

Inspiration Station Challenge #46

Seed Heads and Stencilling

Welcome

Today marks the start of a new challenge at We Love Stamping, where the theme is: 

Anything stamped, with an option of add a stencil, keeping the stamping as the focal point.

The sponsor for this challenge is Highlight Crafts, the prize is a fabulous stamp set, and a beautiful die.

I started by inking up an old stencil with my new ink, Memento Angel Wings - I deliberately kept it very soft as I wanted a dreamy look to the card.  I really love making my own backgrounds!

  

The images (a magazine freebie set) were stamped with Twilight Ink, and coloured lightly with my Polychromo pencils

The bee was the only element stamped with black ink, and I coloured his wings with a silver pen, that I  also doodled around the borders of the card with.

The greeting was silver embossed, and some silver sequins added.

  I finished the inside with some silver toned washi on the right side, and also repeated the stencilling on the left inside of the card

The corner of the envelope received the same treatment as the inside of the card, but I used more ink for  better definition of the design, which in all instances, I faded out towards the edge of the stencil.

I am linking this to:

A Gem of a Challenge Week 3 - Anything Goes

Polka Doodles Challenge Week #5 - Anything Goes

LeAnn's World 101 Challenge #59 - Anything Goes

Crafty Catz challenge #623 - Anything Goes

Colouring With Pencils January Challenge - Anything Goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2304 - CAS

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #581 + 582 - Anything Goes

Ally's Angels Challenge #66 - Anything Goes

Allsorts Challenge #714 - Something I Love

Simply Create Too Challenge # 187 - Something I Love

(I love creating my own backgrounds)

Seaweed Hide 'n' Seek

Welcome

I have quite a few men in the family who enjoy fishing, and their birthdays are around this time of year, so it is a bit of a stretch sometimes coming up with cards for them all.

This is for one of the younger ones, so I had a bit of fun with it... 

I started with some light blue cardstock and stencilled over it in Danube Blue, moved the stencil slightly, and then added Bamboo Leaves.  It was a bit blah, so then I moved the stencil again and used Versamark ink , and silver embossed that...

On the stencil, which is called Mini Moving Vines, the design slopes down on one side, so I flipped the it over and repeated the process until I was happy with the panel.  

I then sprayed it with Lindy's Starburst spray in hydrangea blue.

The fish was silver embossed on a wee piece of white card, and painted with Sparkling H2O's.

I then cut a slit in the background panel, following the lines of the 'seaweed' and slipped him in behind.

The sentiment was silver embossed onto the same bottle green card that the panel was mounted on.

Some green and silver washi tape finished the card inside.

I am linking this to:

Word Art Wednesday challenge Weeks #581 + 582 - Anything Goes

Elliebelle's Crafty Wednesday February Challenge - Anything Goes

Paper Funday February Challenge #50 - Anything Goes (Opt Lots of Layers)

D.L.Art February Linky Challenge - Anything Goes

Crazy is Our Name, Stencils are our Game January Challenge - Anything Goes

Digi Chooseday Challenge Week #4 - Anything Goes

AAA Birthday Challenge Game #46 - Use Stencils

Jan''s Digi Stamps January Challenge - Anything Goes

We Love 2 Create Challenge #1 - Anything Mixed Media Goes

The Male Room Challenge #171 - Nature

Gloriously Grungy!!

Welcome

Today I had time to 'play' a bit -  the day was wet outside, again, so I went all grungy, and had a ball doing so!!

These are the elements that I had ready to assemble - the piece of heavy paper that I used was a 'card layer' sized print from last year's Imagine If calendar, by 3/4 Designs, their inhouse brand, as were the ephemera elements. 

By this time I had sprayed it with  Lindy's Go Get a Guy gold spray, added some Lindy's Bratwurst powder and sprayed it, randomly folded it and brushed the folds with Vintage Photo D.I., as well as distressing the edges and brushing them also...  as I also did with the Kraft card base

Here you can see a little of the glimmer the Lindy's product give - quite subtle, which is what I needed as this is going to a teenage boy!!  All the ephemera elements were also distressed and sponged.

This is the finished product with the ephemera adhered on foam pads, and the gold twine randomly wrapped around the base. Two opposing corners were folded back a wee way, and gold paper was layered underneath them. 

This gives an idea of the dimension of the final assembled card....

The sentiment (a magazine freebie) was surgically separated to stamp in an up and down orientation, that was embossed with Espresso Bean EP onto an ephemera speech bubble

I finished the inside with a 'cut-off' from the main panel, some more Bratwurst Powder and some old clockface stamps, the smallest of which I gold embossed.  

The outside of the envelope also was stamped in a similar manner, and the Distress ink gently moved with a wet brush. 

I am linking this to:

Paper Funday Challenge #50 - Anything Goes with Twist of Lots of Layers

Digi Chooseday Week #4 - Anything Goes

Use Your Stuff Challenge #476 - Mixed Media

Corrosive Challenge #1 - January - Anything Goes

We Love 2 Create Challenge #1 - Anything Mixed Media Goes

Allsorts Challenge #713 - For Boys or Men

Creative Inspirations February Challenge - Anything Goes

A Gem of a Challenge Week #2 - Anything Goes

PolkaDoodles Challenge Week #4 - Anything Goes

Try Stamping on Tuesday Challenge #591 - Used the layers Option