Roses for Paper Rose

Today, I'm sharing a card using products from Paper Rose.

I stamped the roses in a pale coloured ink, and coloured them with Derwent pencils. I cut the roses in half so I could create a border with them on the bottom edge of the card. I stamped the sentiment in grey ink and I was done! 

 Thanks for visiting :)

Challenge me a Christmas Card with Anika Lerche

Welcome to "Challenge me a Christmas Card" for 2019! I have asked cardmaking friends to join me in the lead up to Christmas by challenging me to make a card using a specific style, theme, technique or product.

My guest for today is Anika Lerche of Annikarten. Anika has challenged me to make a card with Reindeer.

You can check out her take on the challenge HERE. 

Here's what I came up with:

I cut squares from a panel of white cardstock, blended some distress oxide ink over the squares and then adhered them back in place.  I stamped the sentiment from Mama Elephant over one of the squares in the middle. I then stamped a bunch of reindeer (also from Mama Elephant), coloured them with Copic markers, fussy cut them and adhered them over the squares. I added some Wink of Stella to add some shine.

 Thanks for visiting :)

Challenge me a Christmas Card with Michelle Williams

Welcome to "Challenge me a Christmas Card" for 2018!

My guest today is Michelle Williams, and she has challenged me to make a card using red, green and gold. You can check out her take on this challenge HERE.

Here's what I came up with:

 I used stamps from Hero Arts.

Thanks for visiting :)

Challenge me a Christmas Card with Cecilia Hsieh

Welcome! Last year, I did a series on my blog where I asked people to set me a Christmas card challenge. This year, I'm stepping it up a notch, by asking crafty friends to join me!

How cool is this graphic!! My crafty friend, Kylie Purtell, made it especially for me! YAY!  You can check out her blog HERE.

Today, the challenge theme is "Purple". 

My special guest today is Cecilia Hsieh - you can check out her take on this challenge HERE.

Here's my take:

 I used Simon Says Stamp winter flowers to stamp the poinsettia in Versamark and gold emboss onto watercolour cardstock. I then coloured it with Colour burst powders, and sprayed with Perfect Pearls mixed with water. I fussy cut around the flowers to create a panel (I kept a slice of the panel on the left to layer the panel onto, so that the flower would go off the edge of the card). I stamped "Joy to the World from Annabelle Stamps (sadly no longer available) and gold embossed to match the poinsettias.

This next photo was very difficult to take - so much shine did weird things to the colours!

This is the last post for my Challenge me a Christmas Card series for 2017 - thanks for all your kind comments, and I look forward to more challenges in 2018!

Thanks for visiting :) 

Challenge me a Christmas Card with Jessica Frost-Ballas

This is my 2nd post today - if you are looking for my Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge project, click HERE.

Welcome! Last year, I did a series on my blog where I asked people to set me a Christmas card challenge. This year, I'm stepping it up a notch, by asking crafty friends to join me!

How cool is this graphic!! My crafty friend, Kylie Purtell, made it especially for me! YAY!  You can check out her blog HERE.

Today, the challenge theme is "Penguins". 

My special guest today is Jessica Frost-Ballas - you can check out her take on this challenge HERE.

Here's my take:

 I used "Santa's Wonderland" from Neat and Tangled, with Copic markers. The Distress Inks used are Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot, and the Distress Oxides are Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers (not Mermaid Lagoon as I said in the video) and Picked Raspberry. 

And I made a video!

Thanks for visiting :) 

Challenge me a Christmas Card with Deb McCleary

Welcome! Last year, I did a series on my blog where I asked people to set me a Christmas card challenge. This year, I'm stepping it up a notch, by asking crafty friends to join me!

How cool is this graphic!! My crafty friend, Kylie Purtell, made it especially for me! YAY!  You can check out her blog HERE.

Today, the challenge theme is White Christmas

My special guest today is Deb McCleary  - you can check out her take on this challenge below.

Here's my take:

 I used a Simon Says Stamp die with embossing paste to create the snow in the background. I created the snow drifts using Hillside Border dies from Lawn Fawn. The snowman and the sentiment are from Papertrey Ink.

My guest today, Deb McCleary, does not blog her cards, so she sent me a photo to include here:

I love all the shine and texture on her card!! Gorgeous!

Thanks for visiting :) 

Fusion: Autumn Leaves

Welcome to a new challenge at Fusion!

I created a bokeh effect background on a dark blue notecard from Hero Arts, using white pigment ink, and Distress Oxide inks in Salty Ocean and Broken China. I then stamped the leaves from Stampin' Up and gold embossed, before adding some yellow and orange distress markers and spraying with water to blend. I fussy cut them and added them with a die-cut branch, before gold embossing the sentiment from Studio Katia.

 Make sure you check out the rest of the Design Team cards at the Fusion challenge blog!

Thanks for visiting :)

Pink floral birthday with Concord and 9th

Hello!  I felt the need to make a floral card today, and the challenges at The Flower Challenge, and at Where Creativity Meets C9 was calling my name!

I stamped and white embossed the Concord & 9th floral image onto some Canson watercolour paper. I then added colour with Zig clean color real brush markers and sprayed with water. I added a bit more colour in some places, before fussy cutting the edges of the image and mounting it onto some Stampin Up Regal Rose cardstock, and then onto a top folding white card base made from Neenah 11lb solar white. I took a scrap of the Regal Rose cardstock and white embossed the sentiment from the Many Mandalas stamp set (also Concord & 9th) and popped that up on some foam tape. A little line of faux stitching lines on the sentiment strip, and a coat of Wink of Stella on the flowers were the finishing touches.

 Thanks for visiting :)

Fusion - 3rd Anniversary

Welcome back to a new FUSION challenge for 2017! Today, we are celebrating our 3rd anniversary at Fusion. We have invited some special guests to join us - I'll let you know who my guest is in a minute, but first, here's my card:

I made a Fusion of both the photo and the sketch - except I don't drink coffee, so I have a cup of tea on my card :) The stamps are from Avery Elle "Tea Time", and the woodgrain background is from Stampin' Up, stamped in Versamark watermark ink onto Simon Says Stamp "Fog" cardstock.

Now to my super duper special news!  My special guest for our birthday celebration is the one, the only, Jennifer McGuire!! Here's a sneak peek of one of her cards, but you will have to visit the Fusion challenge blog to see BOTH of her cards in full! And make sure you visit her blog, too, to check out the video!

Thanks for visiting :)

Fusion - Pretty in Pink

Hello, and welcome back to another Fusion challenge!

 Make sure you check out the Fusion challenge blog for more inspiration!

Thanks for visiting :) 

Fusion - Peacock Dynasty

Welcome to another Fusion challenge!  As soon as I saw the latest photo inspiration, I thought of a particular patterned paper called Peacock Palace from Cristina Re. I had a single piece of this paper left, so I did some fussy cutting around the peacock image and came up with this:

I created the background by adding Versamark ink over my Swirl Stencil from Hero Arts, then adding Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder from Judikins and embossing with my heat gun.  I then used my blending tool to add Distress Inks to the background in Mermaid Lagoon and Peacock Feathers (of course!!)
The sentiment from Clearly Besotted is white embossed on black card stock.

(It's with cards like this one that I wish photos could capture glitter and sparkle better.  This really looks special in real life!)

 Please come on over to Fusion to check out the creations of all of the design team, and decide whether you will use the photo, the sketch, or create a fusion of both!

 Thanks for visiting :)

Sunshine and Laughter

Playing along with this week's MUSE challenge, provided by Ardyth!  

This card started out very different - I had used much smaller flowers across the middle in a wave pattern - and I masked them with masking fluid.  I dried the masking fluid with my heat gun on the low setting, and I think that might have been my mistake - when I removed it, it ripped the watercolour paper everywhere!  So I stamped some large flowers to cover up the total mess I had made! (Note to self - don't use a heat gun to dry masking fluid, no matter how low a setting you use!)

 Here's Ardyth's card:

Thanks for visiting :)

CASology Guest Designer!

I'm so excited today, because I'm a guest designer at one of my favourite challenge blogs, CASology! Thanks so much to Melissa for inviting me!  Their codeword this week is "BASKET".  Here's my take:

Yes, that basket is hand-woven - from strips of kraft cardstock that I sponged with some Distress Ink.  I die cut it out using a circle die, then cut the top edge off.  I added some twine that I plaited to make it into a hanging basket, so that I could add these gorgeous fuchsias from Clearly Besotted, which I fussy cut.  A sentiment from Hero Arts and I was done! 

Now this card doesn't fit the "easily reproducable" category of CAS, but it has only one focal image, and lots of white space, so I think it still qualifies as CAS (for the clean design, if not for the time taken to create it!)

 Make sure you drop in to CASology to see the amazing creations from the design team, and to link up your own creation - I'm looking forward to seeing what you make!

Thanks for visiting :)

CASe this sketch

Another card for a challenge today - this time, it's CASe this Sketch. I went back to my cardmaking roots with this one - pattern provided by patterned paper, not stamps and inks.  This patterned paper is from Lawn Fawn.

Thanks for visiting :)

Hello, twins

A friend of mine asked for a baby card for twins, so I thought I'd join in with both Lawnscaping's Clean and Simple challenge, and Virginia's View Shaker card challenge.  Now, I've never made a shaker card before today.  Never. So it was a bit of a steep learning curve, and I must say I'm not very inclined to make another one!  However, I am happy with the finished product. 

On the background, I used the technique of using Versamark to create shadows on a panel of solid ink (Hero Arts Shadow Ink in Soft Pool), which I learned in the recent Online Card Class.  I created a stencil to apply the Versamark using some Lawn Fawn cloud dies.   All the stamps are also Lawn Fawn - from "Plus One" and also "Hello Baby".  I had to create an extra bundle for the stork to carry with some creative masking (I've done this a number of times before with this stamp).  The window was cut with a Stitched Circle die from Lil' Inker Designs. 

 Thanks for visiting :)