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

Cool fun

Welcome again to my guests - I apologise for another long gap in my blogging - the joys of family specifically, and life in general, getting in the way!!

This card was a really 'fun' one to make as it all went very smoothly - the layout was probably the most problematic part of it all.

I started the card by designing and printing out some 'Happy Birthday' dp on the computer.  I did learn from this, and will off-set the words should I do this again.

Next I coloured the main part of the image (Crabby Cat by Bugaboo Stamps) with chalks,  trying to give the cat the look of a ginger tabby. The dark glasses were coloured with a calligraphy pen, leaving the glint white, and the frames with a glitter pen.

I then mounted the two main layers onto a layer of bright orange card.  Then came the fiddly bit while I sorted the layout.  After mounting it all on the dark brown base, I added some bling and then carefully dotted some dimensional glue onto the lenses of the glasses. 

I am linking this to:

Catch the Bug Challenge Blog - May - Anything Goes

CES Challenge #35 - Favourite Colour Combo (Orange and Brown)

Ellephantastic challenge #26 - Birthday/party

Marks finest Papers Challenge #54 - No Embellishments

One Stop Craft Challenge #130 - Birthdays

Sweet Stampin' Challenge Blog - Childhood Memories - a ginger cat

Crafty Annes Challenge #40 - Happy Birthday

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - Quote or Sentiment

Digi's with attitude - Make us laugh

Thanks for visiting - I treasure your visits and comments.

May your day be blessed.

Twice inspired by Card Patterns# 107

Greetings to you again - I so appreciate your visits.

I also appreciate the fact that I have been spotlighted this week by 

Pink Paper Paradise

Thank you ladies for the vote of confidence!!

I am showcasing two cards today - the first I followed the sketch at the 

Card Patterns blog quite closely...

The butterfly is a digi from Priscillastyles Store and I love using it - I coloured it with chalks, and then sprinkled gold embossing powder over the image and heated it to give some sparkle to it.

It was mounted on some green 'marbled' paper that I was given from a friend - the texture of the paint on this is amazing!!  This was then mounted on a lacy square.

The centre panel was some pale green paper, punched on either side with a Fiskars punch, and sponged with Adirondack Bottle green ink, and the gold dots are a dimensional glue.  The ribbon is a multi-coloured pastel which was part of a fibre pack given to me by a friend - it was very slippery to tie the bow with, but we got there!!

The base of the card is a very dark bottle green and I puzzled over how to lighten it, when I came across the piece of textured 'paper' with sprinkles of gold over it - they can just be seen in the top photograph - it lightened the appearance of the card and added some more interest.

The next card is really and adaptation of the sketch, and was also inspired by the technique challenge on Splitcoast Stampers, to use newspaper on your card.

I sponged the edge of the newspaper with Tim Holtz distress ink - tea Stain, then went over board and screwed it up and applied the ink direct to paper, balled it up again and then wiped over Whisper Mossy Stone ink. After all the "messyness", I flattened it out and used it as a background.

I stamped the scripture (from Our Daily Bread Designs, Scripture Collection 1) and greeting (by Hero Arts) onto white card using Adirondack Espresso and Versamark inks, and clear embossed it.  After cutting the ovals with spellbinders classic ovals I embossed them and sponged the edges with the mossy stone ink, then the very outside edges with the tea stain.  I then mounted it using a variation of the sketch :-).

I am linking this to:

Card Patterns #107 - Sketch

Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight Challenge - make your own paper (card 2)

Our Creative Corner - Don't throw it away (card 2)

Really Reasonable Ribbon#20 - One for the boys (card 2)

Creative Card Friends - Spring (card1)

Incy Wincy Designes #86 - Embossing (both cards)

Thanks for visiting - may your day be blessed