Baby Carriage

Greetings - you are most welcome, and I am so glad you visit my blog.

Today I must say that I am so glad I never had to push one of these!!

This delightful image is from today's releases by McMahon Vintage Digitals

It was coloured using a mix of mediums - sponged ink for the backgrounds, chalks, a gold pen and a Copic pen, Burnt Umber (my first attempt). 

The detail on the image is amazing - and great to work with.

The main image was mounted over a Spellbinders Paper Arts Scalloped Rectangle Nestabilitie, then onto some paper from the Prima Romantique 6x6 stack, which was sponged with Memento Desert Sand ink, then mounted onto a cream card, the edges of which was wiped along a Memento Dark Cocoa ink pad.

The bow is of a dotted chiffon ribbon, and was adhered with a glue dot and embellished with a pearl.

The sentiment is unknown and was stamped and gold embossed, and the whole finished with some Kaiser chino half pearls.

The rest of the design team has some wonderful work on display and I encourage you to visit them.

I am linking this to:

Inky Impressions Challenge #26 - use punches or dies

Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge #63 - Anything Goes

Scrapalicious USA challenge #28 - Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting - may your day be blessed.

Baby in Lemon

Welcome again - I am so glad you have called in!

This weeks releases from McMahon Five Design  include this vintage baby image, Sweet Baby Mine.

The image was coloured using chalks, and cut using a Nestie classic oval die, embossed, and the background sponged before removing the die. 

The image had lace gathered around the oval, which was mounted with foam dots over some panels embossed with the buds and vines folder.

The same lace was placed across the base of the card and prettied up with some pale green rhinestones.  Rhinestones were also placed at the base of the image.

The final touch was this bow tied with a wee piece of silver edged, iridescent ribbon.


The other Design team members have also created some beautiful cards - do visit them - the links are in my side bar.


I am linking this to:
My Mum's Craft Shop challenge #24 - Boys and girls
The Paper Shelter Challenge #32 - Anything goes
Stampavic and More - Challenge #152 - Love (every baby brings their own)
Card patterns challenge # 133
Art Impressions challenge #33 - for the girls
Pals Paper Arts PPA112 -Element of style, Lace

Thank you so much for visiting - may your day be blessed.

Interference florals

Welcome, and thanks for calling by.

I had fun recently taking a class on how to use Opalite inks - they are an interference ink, and I had owned a pad for some time and had not used to to it's full potential, so jumped at the opportunity to learn more.

This is one way of using them - I embossed the matte black card oval with the fantasy floral folder, then rubbed the Glacier Blue Opalite ink over it.  This does not really do justice to the sheen you can achieve with these inks.

I had seen this technique for a card online, and had also used it in the class. The originals used a circle, but as I don't have circular Nesties, I used oval instead.

This is a close-up of the smallest oval, with the sentiment stamped in Memento Pearlescent Poppy ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.

And here is the card opened up - it pivots on the floral brads you can see at the base of the top layer, and there is one base of the central panel.

I am linking this to:

One Stop Craft Challenge #149 - Girlie

Stamp, Scrap and Doodle Challenge #9 - Birthday

Sweet Stamping Challenge - flowers

Totally Gorjuss Challenge #98 - Nothing square

Crafty Ann Challenge #49 - Make yourself uncomfortable - trying new technique

If The Shoe Fits Challenge #91 - Bejewelled blue

Patti's Creations Challenge #30 - Girlie things

Stampin' for the Weekend Challenge #16 - Tickled Pink

Cute & Girly- September Challenge - All Things Bright and Beautiful

Creatalicious Challenges Challenge #26 - anything goes

Thanks so much for visiting - may your day be blessed

The Captain and Peas and Thank You

Welcome again - I am so glad to see you here.

This week at McMahon Five Design.com there are quite a few images being released, so once you have finished here, I invite you to visit the other blogs (click on the links on my side bar) to see all the gorgeous-ness!

I start this week with The Captain from McMahon Vintage Digis.

 This handsome fellow was coloured using chalks, cut out  using an oval Nesties die  by Spellbinders.  The edges were sponged with Memento Summer Sky.  He was then mounted on a blue oval that was sponged with Memento Danube Blue, and lightly sprayed with a silver glimmer mist.

 He embodies the dignity of a Cruise Liner Captain, so he deserved the wonderful dp Ocean Waters from Studio 313, to set him off to perfection.  The paper was printed onto Cryogen Mysterious Metallics paper with the very discrete sparkle that shines through whatever colour is applied over it.

I mounted this simply over some blue cardstock with the addition of a corner embellishment (a Cuttlebug Vintage Corner halved on the diagional),

and a simple stitched ribbon knotted in the centre.

In contrast the next release is by Studio 313 and is titled Peas and Thank You and is a rather fun set.  I have taken two elements of the nine in the set (nine images, how generous is that!) to make this card.

I just loved these wee peas in a pod and could not resist using them.  

I coloured them using dye inks as paint - after painting the image I then cut them using the nestie oval dies and sponged some ink to form a background before removing the die. The green layer was cut using the scalloped oval.

The sentiment was printed, trimmed and the corners rounded, and mounted on  a layer of green card.  When mounting it I used foam dots to give some dimension.

To assemble the card I  took some dp from a scrap pack, embossed it using the hounds-tooth folder, added the long ribbons then layered it onto the green base.

The images were then layered onto that, and for additional detail I added the three bows.


I am linking this to:
Deep ocean Challenge #6 - Light Blue (Card One)
Lady Bugs Crafts - challenge #36 - Favourite Stamp (card two)
Shopping Our Stash SOS Challenge #13 - Weakest Link - ribbon
Try it on Tuesdays - Anything Goes - Card 2
HotSpot Challenge #7 - colour palette - Quarry (First card)

Thank you for visiting with me today.  May your day be blessed.

New Mexico Release..

Welcome back for a second release today - with having made my cards early thanks to the break, when this new set, New Mexico  by McMahon Five Design.com was offered, I took the opportunity to use it.

This is the first card I made

The background card was embossed with the Retro Squares folder, and the edges sponged with Memento Bamboo Leaves ink before being mounted on an olive green base.

The sentiment was cut out and embossed with a Nestabilities rectangle , and sponged with the same ink. The scalloped rectangle was sponged with Whisper Orange ink.

The jars were 'fussy cut' and painted with twinkling H2O's and mounted on foam spots.  

The second card I used some dp by Studio 313, called Ocean Water, but turned it ninety degrees to make it look like smoke whisps.

I cut the sentiment out and mounted it on the same card as the base of the card.

The sombrero was fussy cut and coloured with watercolour pens

The peppers were again coloured with the watercolour pens and fussy cut, and then I put a layer of dimensional glue over them, which gave them a wonderful glaze and made them a real feature of the card.

I finished the card with some bright red ribbon and a button.

I am linking this to:

Divas by Design Challenge #8 - Birthdays (second card)
AiFactory - Anything Goes - (first card)
Craft Us Crazy Challenge #14 - Anything Goes - second card
Crafty Sentiments - Dies and Punches - first card
Do You Stack up - challenge #32 - embossing - card one
Paper Play Challenge #32 - create your own Dp - first card
Pixie dust studio Challenge #87 - Boys will be boys - second card

Thanks for calling by - may your day be blessed

Patchwork and flowers

Welcome - I am so glad you have called in.

I was inspired by a challenge and some Blog Candy I won recently when designing this card.

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The background oblongs were cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities rectangles, as were the two feature panels.

The background panels were stitched onto a white base using a sewing machine, but the main panels were actually hand stitched on using some variegated mettalic thread.

The edges of the feature rectangles, the white layer and the pink base card were sponged with the same Rouge chalk ink as the sentiment was stamped with.

The feature image is one that I 'won'  as Blog Candy - thank you so much Rebekka. I initially stamped it with Memento Summer Sky and Cottage Ivy, them coloured the image with chalks. The centers of the flowers I dotted using a sparkle lemon pen.

After colouring the image with chalks I gave it a quick flick of hairspray - a cheap and readily available fixative.

The image was mounted on foam dots to give it some dimension, and  some buttons were added to the bottom right of that panel and the top left corner of the card, stitching them so the ends were on top and tied off.

The final detail was a tiny bow in the corner.

I am linking this to:

Birthday Sundaes - Birthday card

Card Cupids - buttons and/or ribbons

Kennys Kraft Girls - Anything goes -summery

Sentimental Sundays - flowers plus a sentiment

Sparkles Forum - One for the Girls

Our Daily Bread Designs Shine The Light challenge -The seamstress/ Sewing

Craft Your Days Away Challenge #26 - Birthday

Paper Creators - Challenge #4 - Say it with Flowers

Thanks for calling by my blog.  May your day be blessed.

Sympathy cards

Greetings to all my cyber visitors.

The cards that I am sharing today were not easy for me to make as they are for members of a family with whom we have shared a lot of life with. My (adult) children grew up with their children, and we are all grieving the loss of their husband/father in an accident.

I took the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge as the starting point for this first card, and the fact that I found some gold trimmings that would 'work' for the end pieces was the next step.  

The image (from Our Daily Bread Designs) was stamped on water colour paper using aqua-crayons direct to stamp, and the same crayons were used for the background.

The sentiment was stamped and embossed - not the best embossing, partially due to the paper I was working on.

I was glad to be able to use the pearls and the bow to soften the look of the card, as without them it looked rather stark.

The double ric rak was the final detail.  

The panel that the main image is mounted on is a lovely paper that came in a pack I was given as a gift, and has a beautiful sheen on it.

Then came a second card, and again I was having difficulty trying to plan the card, so I ended up CASE-ING one from 'Lovely Linda'.

I started with a green card, and found some (Warehouse) design paper to layer onto it and sponged the edges to soften the 'join'.  It still looked very harsh, so I sprayed it with some Twinkling H2O's Radiant Rain aka Luminarte Shimmering Mist in Lemon Drop (which I know turns green on green paper - I don't know why it changes colour, but it is very useful at times)

I then stamped the the Victorian Frame from Layers of Color onto a lighter green card, and coloured it with chalks,  gold embossed the sentiment from Our Daily Bread Designs into the centre of that panel, then cut and embossed it using a Spellbinders Labels 14 die.

After assembling the card I then added the two pearls at either end of the panel. The flowers in the corners were white, but I touched them onto a Cantaloupe Memento ink pad, and then sprayed them with the same spray I used on the dp.  (this will give you an idea of the true colour of the paint!)

The green pearls in the middle of the flowers were the final touch.

Thank you for the inspiration Linda - I hope my CASE is acceptable.

I am linking these to

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge # 85 (card 1)

 Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #99 - flowers (card 2)

Paper Take Weekly challenge - anything goes Both Cards

Craft Your Passion Challenge #39 - anything goes (Both cards)

Thank you for visiting, and the comments you leave are very much appreciated - as some one said recently, we bloggers become comment 'junkies' :-)

May your day be blessed.

Romance!!

Yes, I am starting the year off with romance - this is a card for a couple who will shortly be celebrating their anniversary.

I was a bit hesitant when I started this card as I was working to a sketch challenge, and the image was one that was given as a freebie to go with the challenge. Once I got going things seemed to come together quite well.

The image is coloured with glitter pens and coloured pencils. This was cut out with a Nestie  - the largest of the classic oval dies, embossed, pierced, and mounted on the largest of the scalloped oval dies, with the silver ribbon between the layers.

The offset oval to the sides, with the pearls on, was a slightly smaller oval from the same set, cut out of silver card stock and split in half to give the elongated appearance.

I matched these by cutting the corners of the same card stock, using the Cuttlebug Vintage Corners Die, and adding a matching pearl.

Although it shows as blue in the photo, the dp is actually a lovely lavender with very soft images of roses on it, which you can just see in the above photograph.

In the end I was very happy with this card, although it certainly challenged me in the making.

I am entering this in

Southern Girls challenge #9- Anything Goes

Woodware challenge #7- Anything Goes

Sew Many Cards - New things

Stamping Insanity Challenge #40 - sparkle

Catch The Bug Challenge - Anything Goes

Craft Your Day Away Challenge #10 - Punch it Out

Crafty Emma #17 - Anything Goes

Speedy The Cat's Friends Challenge - Use something new - silver cardstock

Thank you for visiting my blog, and I do pray that you all have a happy 2011, filled with joy, love and laughter, and that you will prosper in all you do.

MMSC83 - Sympathy

Greetings once more to my cyber visitors.

I wanted to make a sympathy card for a neighbour, and unexpectedly had the time to do it this afternoon.

It was quite a quick card to make and I was pleased with the result.

Although the base card looks to be a light brown IRL it is gold with a delightful shimmer - not too much, just enough to be elegant.

The white layer was embossed using the Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls folder, and  then the card was split diagonally and mounted on the gold.

The sentiment was embossed in gold, cut using a Spellbinders Nestability Classic Oval large (#4) and mounted on the matching scalloped oval.

This was deliberately mounted in this "cut off" manner to match the sketch challenge at  Midnight Madness.

The finishing touches were the ribbon and pearls.

I am linking this to 

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #83

Caardvarks final challenge - Monochrome

Creative card Crew - Anything Goes

Peachy Keen Stamps challenge - Embossing

Thanks for visiting, and I love it when you comment - all comments are very much appreciated.

May your day be blessed.