Tea, My Friend?

Welcome

I am back with another napkin card from late last year.

Again it was a napkin I had 'snaffled' when out, and I used it for a birthday card for the hostess a month or two later.

After gluing the napkin onto a piece of card, I used an embossing pen on all the gold printed areas, and then embossed with WOW Metallic Gold Sparkle embossing powder. I also wiped the edges over a Versamark embossing pad and dipped them into the same powder.  .  

I used a snippet of pink card that matched the card base to emboss the sentiment onto, using the same e.p., and popped it up on foam dots to give a wee bit of dimension.

I used some washi tape for the inside, which the recipient had given me as a birthday gift last year.

On the other side, I inked an area with pale blue ink, then glued on the wee cupid image, which had been trimmed out of the paper that the recipient had wrapped an exchange gift for me in.  

The card was very well received, and all the elements recognised - we had a laugh over the number of 'recycled' elements involved.

I am linking this to:

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends challenge #198 - Anything Goes

Crafty Catz Challenge #621 - Anything Goes

A Gem of a Challenge Week #2 - Anything Goes

Polka Doodles Challenge Week #3 - Anything Goes

Three Room Studio Saturday Challenge #95 - Anything Goes

Arty Diva's January Challenge - Anything Goes

Allsorts Challenge Week #712 - Spots or Stripes

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #226 - G is for Glitter

Creative Knockouts Challenge #486 - Celebrations

Creative Fingers Challenge #246 - Anything Goes

Mid-Month Favourite Colours

Welcome

It's time for We Love Stamping mid-month inspiration in the January  Favourite Colours Challenge.

Please note there is a slight change to the rules

Can we please draw your attention to a change with regard to entries using Instagram. As this format does not offer the option to add a working link back to our challenge, in future they will not be eligible and deleted. We are doing this to be fair to the majority of entrants who do comply with this requirement.

This time I started with a fun green bubble background, and augmented it with a teal green card base

 - I love using green in my cards

This wee mermaid was a freebie I found on line

I painted her, and her wee fishy friend, in twinkling H20's

Added a split sentiment embossed in sparkle silver ep

I added a few large flat 'dew drop embellishments after taking most of the photographs, but they are in the top photo

A strip of washing tape finished the inside of the card.

I am linking this to:

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge 2302 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #579 + 580 - Anything Goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #198 - Anything Goes

A Gem of a Challenge, Week 1 - Anything Goes

Crafty Calendar January Challenge - Add a Sentiment

Patties Creations Challenge #202 - Anything Goes

Digi Chooseday Challenge Week 2 - Anything Goes

Everybody Art Challenge #527 - Anything Goes

Crafting Happiness Challenge January #138 - Celebrations

AAA Birthday Game #45- Anything Birthday 

Background Stamped With What???

Welcome

Last month in my small NZ swap group the challenge was to use what would be considered 'waste packaging' to form our backgrounds.

Twice I thought I had decided what to use, and twice I saw others had done it, as I was very late getting my card made... so I was innovative and chose to use the inside layer of some corrugated cardboard, as that was all I had - the first few minutes were spent taking the flat, outside layer off... 

 The Natasha Foote video we were given to inspire us is here 

I first brayered the blue acrylic paint on my Gelli Plate and took a print off it using corrugated card, and then repeated using gold paint - I challenged myself and put the different colours on at different angles, and did not fill the whole background...  

The tree was cut from a die that was a magazine freebie - the paper I used was almost iridescent, you can see the colour change in the right, bottom corner of the tree - I have had this paper since I first started paper crafting twenty something years ago...

The greeting was embossed in a sparkly gold ep, then I laid the stamp over the embossed layer,  drew and cut around to to make a faux 'shadow' layer.

A simple finish on the inside with floral washi tape in a matching colour

I am linking this to:

Cut it up Chllenge #269 - Anything Goes

Polka Doodles Challenge Week #2 - Anything Goes

Creative Fingers Challenge #246 - Anything Goes

Incy Wincy (Mini) Challenge - Cute, or Pastel Colours

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #577 + 578 - Anything Goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #198 - Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations - Add Some Sparkle

The Corrosive Challenge #1 - Anything Goes

Allsorts Challenge #711 - Anything Goes Opt winter Blues

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - New

New technique, first use of the die and stamp

Sparkly Balloons

Welcome

I needed a card for a girl turning eight, and I am not sure of her likes and interests, so I came up with a fairly neutral, but feminine and sparkly card.

The background was a 'Mop up" piece using Dusty Concorde DI.  

When I have been using ink to blend on card, as I work on a waterproof surface, I simply give the ink a light spray of water and dip the card into it until it is looking ok to me...waste not want not!

I then gave this one a light spray of Lindy's magical mica spray French Lilac Violet (New, first Use)

To add interest I randomly stamped this butterfly over it in Versamark ink, then brushed it with a pink mica powder... that I have had for years and not used... New, first use.

I punched five balloon shapes from sparkle card and wrapped variegated metallic thread around them to form ties (a very fiddly task!!)  I popped the balloons up on foam dots, and then gathered the threads together with some ribbon and tied a bow - which promptly decided it was going to end up upside down, by which time I was so frustrated I left it like that!!

The sentiment was stamped with purple ink and clear embossed

The inside was finished with the strip of the purple ribbon with a simple knot tied in it.

I am linking this to:

Digi Chooseday Challenge Week #1 - Anything Goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2301 - Anything Goes

Allie's Angels Challenge #66 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #577 +578 - Anything Goes

Double D Challenge - Happy Birthday

Everybody Art Challenge #527 - Anything Goes

For the 'new' challenges - the mica powder and the spray

Get Creative Challenge #117 - Something New

Beyond the Blue Challenge #77 - New

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - New

The Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge - Something New

Tool Time!

Welcome

And another special welcome - this time to Carol G of CreationsNZ. Do pop over and visit, her work is amazing. Thank you for choosing to follow me

This card was made for a man who loves to work with wood, and is gifted in it.

I started by making a woodgrain panel. swiping London Fog Memento ink, and Lawn Fawn Moonstone, Crunchy Leaf and River Rock inks over a scored piece of white card.

This was adhered to a piece of bottle green card

Above it I placed this piece of corrugated card that I had wiped with gold and ruby gilding waxes

The sentiment, a magazine freebie, was gold embossed on the green base.

I was not happy with the card even at this stage after adhering the small hand tools , cut from a frantic stamper set of dies.  I then remembered something I had read on a blog, and took a fine liner pen, the finest I own at 0.01 mm, and formed a 'shadow' to the right of each tool - the photo above shows the difference it made!

I finished the inside with some bronze dotted washi tape.

I am linking this to:

Wednesday's Creative Inspiration January Challenge - use something old or something new

The old is the tool set, and new is the technique of shadowing the die cut

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #577 + 578 - Anything Goes

Elliebelle's Crafty Wednesday January Challenge - Anything Goes

Paper Funday January Challenge - Anything Goes- opt Starry Night

A Gem of a Challenge Week #1 - Anything Goes

Crafty Calendar January Challenge - Add a Sentiment

Crafty Catz Challenge #619 - Hobbies or Pastimes

Wood Work is a hobby, rather than primary employment for the recipient

Crreative Knockouts Challenge #485 - Anything Goes

Birdie Birthday

Welcome

And a very special welcome to some new followers

Beccy Muir - Beccy's Place

Re Gina - I couldn't find a link for her

Lorraine Lowe of Coldwaters2 - Welcome to my Little World of Craft

Linby of Crafty Linby

Cathy of KraftyKoolKat

These ladies make some amazing art - do follow the links and pay them a visit

Onto today's card - a simple pair of die cuts on, would you believe it, another napkin base!

The bird, an older Inspire S/B In Flight die, was cut out of metallic paper

The greeting was also an older S/B die, cut twice in card and once in the metallic paper

These were mounted over the napkin background, and three pink sequins were the finishing touch.

The inside was finished with two layers of washi tape - a pink chevron design covered by a silver chevron design.  It looks better IRL as the silver shines.

I am linking this to:

Crafting Happiness January Challenge # 138 - Celebrations

Jan's Digi Stamps January Challenge - Anything Goes

Ally's Angels Challenge #65 - Anything Goes

Arty Diva's Dec. Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafters Café Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafts Galore Encore January Challenge - Anything Goes

Girlz Creative Crafts Challenge #32 - Anything Goes

Leann's World 101 January Challenge #58 - Anything Goes

Love To Craft Challenge #72 - Anything Goes

Mix it Up Challenge #63 - Anything Goes - opt No Stamping

Favourite Colours

Welcome

It's time for a new challenge  at We Love Stamping, and the theme for this month is 

Use your Favourite Colours 

Our sponsor for the months is AALL and Create, with a stamp set and stencil as the prize.

The challenge really had me thinking, as I don't feel I have any one favourite colour combination, I eventually came to the conclusion I often use pinks/blues and purples together.

I started by blending a combination of dye inks from Altenew in the  Shades of Purple and Cherry Blossoms bundles, sprinkled it with water and gave it a light spray with a pale lilac mica spray.

I then stamped over this with some worker stamps in the darkest of the purple inks.

The stamps came from an Art By Marlene set of texture stamps, and the Visometry set by Visible Image that appears to be discontinued.

The focal image is from Crafty Individuals , I have linked it directly as it is unnamed.  It was stamped in Versafine Clair Pinecone ink, directly onto the background, and then just the flower head was stamped on some white card, coloured with Polychromo pencils and glued to the background over some cheesecloth. Glossy Accents were then added to give it some shine and dimension

The sentiment was stamped using the darkest of the purple inks onto a snippet of the blue base card, again adhered over some cheesecloth.  All the layers had the edges wiped over the darkest purple ink, to give cohesion.

The inside was finished with some washi tape. 

I am linking this to:

Creative Fingers Challenge #245 - Anything Goes

Double Trouble Challenge #128 - Some Thing, Any Thing, Every Thing,

Pattie's Creations Challenge #201 - Anything Goes

Creative Knockouts Challenge #404 - Anything Goes

Krafty Chicks Challenge #644 - Anything Goes

The Paper Shelter Christmas Break Challenge - Anything Goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #197 - Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations January Challenge - Add Some Sparkle

(The Glossy Accents on the flower sparkle)

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #575 +576 - Anything Goes