Friday Mashup time again!

This is my second week of being a Guest Designer for Friday Mashup Challenges.  I was so excited when Holly sent me the details of the challenge as this is one of my favourite combos.

So I've created a mashup card for your inspiration.  This card is a case of a card that I cased very early in my card making days and I'm sorry but I wasn't blogging then and didn't take down the name of the person I cased so if it's yours leave a comment and a link to your blog and I'll give you credit.

I've used the Always stamp set here, it's one of my all time favourites.  As my heat gun hasn't arrived, the white images on the background are stamped in Craft Ink White rather than embossed in white, so they appear a lot softer than intended.

I then went out and made another Black n White card for fun to play along in the challenge.  

Another favourite stamp is Bella Toile, I've stamped it in Basic Black and then run the image through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice embossing folder and sponged the edges in Basic Black.  I'm always amazed at how 'purple' Basic Black can look!

I've punched a scallop border around the edge and then threaded some white taffeta ribbon through the holes and added a few rhinestones for some bling!


Hope you're inspired to join in and play with us at Friday Mashup for Challenge # 3  

On another note, I've been playing around with my blog and adding and then removing several backgrounds over the past few days then I found the Scrappin Blogs site and they have some amazing backgrounds, I'll stick with light and dusky pinks for a while, it's got butterflies on it!  Just in case all these changes show up for my followers.  Sorry about all that playing around.

Mmmmm Chocolate...

The ladies over at Just Add Ink have the most awe inspiring Easter challenge, forget your cute little bunnies and chicks.....bring on your favourite chocolate bar and well of course you just have to eat some of the chocolate while you create.....oh that explains the chocolate coloured smudges!

So here is my chocolate inspiration......apart from Haigs chocolate when I can get my hands on it, this is the next best choice for me.  Dark Chocolate has theraputic health benefits....all the experts say so!

And here is the card I made inspired by the chocolate wrapper colours. I did tone the green down just a little.  This is a case of a case....LOL well I cased this design about 3 years ago and I'm sorry to the original artist, I didn't take down details at the time, I created one in burgundy, caramel and soft green which was just beautiful.  I've used the same design but different colours and stamps this time.

It's a little difficult to see in the picture, but I've used a gold leafing pen to jazz up the flowers a little.

Just Add Ink ~ # 64 Chocolate wrapper challenge

Another sketch challenge

What a lovely Easter surprise, thank you to the girls over at 4 Crafty Chicks for selecting this card among the winners.

Hello to all my lovely followers and to those of you just popping in for a quick look around.  Grab a cuppa and browse till your hearts content, I hope I offer you inspiration while you're here.

I'm loving the sketch challenges this week, over at 4 Crafty Chicks they have a sketch that I've gone all monochrome with and just used buckets of texture, which if you stop by now and then, you would already know is one of my favourite things to use.

4 Crafty Chicks ~ Getting Sketchy for Challenge #33

Saturday Sketch and more shaving cream!

I'm still drawn to using the cardstock I prettied up with the shaving cream technique, so here is another post from me using another piece.  I just LOVED this sketch at Sketch Saturday and naturally all those graded dots became.....you guessed it....Butterflies!

Apart from the Garden Green in the background paper making episode, I've only used Night of Navy and Naturals Ivory to make the card.  The butterflies are cut from both colours, spritzed with Champagne Mist shimmer paint and rubbing alcohol to give them a lovely shimmer, then I layered them on top of each other and added a pearl.  

The 'Thanks' stamp comes from a retired set, Illuminations.  I usually emboss these lovely elegant images from the Illuminations set, they just cry out for it......but sadly, my heat gun gave up on me just before I moved house two weeks ago and I've yet to order a new one, however I stamped this twice and cut out the T then added Crystal Effects and a dusting of Dazzling Diamonds and it's so pretty, the picture just shows a hint of it, the T was then popped up on dimensionals.

Sketch Saturday ~ Week #151

Wow I'm a Guest Designer!

How exciting!  I applied to Friday Mashup in their recent call for DT members, I figured that the competition would be strong, it would depend on what the team was looking for to compliment the existing members styles but decided to put my 'hat in the ring' so to speak.  

While I wasn't successful at snagging a spot for the next 6 months, I appreciate how hard that decision would have been to make.  I was asked to be a Guest Designer for the rest of April.  I hope you share in my excitement. I'm pretty happy to be asked to participate as a Guest Designer so......

Here is my Mashup of the challenge #2  I've decided to work with both the sketch and the colour combo in this card.  

I've used the Crumb Cake as the card base, stamped this up with the flourish from Friends 24-7 and layered Marina Mist and Cajun Craze to provide a mat for the image, I punched the scalloped edge and was going to go right the way across but quite liked the border effect so left it there, I then stamped the image in Cajun Craze on Crumb Cake.  I painted a small amount of Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint onto the flowers in the image to provide a little bit of POP.

The Marina Mist half flower was a challenge to sort out until I stuck it to a punched out circle and folded that up to slide under the last of the creases, it worked a treat!  I added a small antique brad to the flower and of course, the Champagne Shimmer paint is spritzed all over the card base to provide a slight shimmer.

I then decided to go with another card with this colour combo and made this which is a case of a card I made ages ago.  The stripey background card is just swiped ink pads onto the cardstock, three colours and it looks so fabulous!  Simple weaving of ribbons on a square of cardstock and dressed up with paper daisies sponged with ink.  I've also dragged out the old Pretties kit (retired) and used up a hat pin and some beads from it.  I'm actually entering this second card into the challenge, just to play along.

Friday Mashup ~ Challenge # 2  Colours Crumb Cake, Marina Mist & Cajun Craze.

Masculine card

I don't often make masculine cards, perhaps once a month if that!  This colour combo called out for masculine when I went to make the card.

Keeping in with my promise to have all my stamp sets see ink, I've dragged another retired set out Artifacts.  

ColourLab - Challenge # 36  Poppy Parade, Early Expresso, Crumb Cake

Sketch Saturday ~ Challenge #150

Set Sail

Hello Blog surfers,  

Look at that!  Just there on the left side of your screen...... I've just tipped over 10,000 page views AND I now have 25 followers.... so I must be doing something right.   Seriously, this is a huge Thank you for stopping by and I'm glad you find my artwork interesting enough to follow.  Your comments make my day and put a lovely smile on my face to think that (almost) complete strangers take time out of their day to leave comments that inspire me to create more.  It's just lovely.

As I said in a recent post, my aim for the rest of this year is to ensure that all my stamp sets see some ink!  So, to make sure that happens, I'm dragging retired sets out and dusting them off.  Here is one that I just love and is perfect for Masculine cards.  Set Sail has this beautiful tall ships stamp and the sentiment is so nice.

I was going to enter this one into two challenges but I'm too late for the colour challenge so it goes into only one.

Craft Your Days Away ~ Challenge # 17 Use Spots and Stripes

Soft and pretty

Soft and Pretty that's what I think this colour combo comes out like.  

Shimmery card stock, pretty in pink ink and cardstock, Basic Gray with shimmer spritzed onto it then some Gray ink and vanilla ribbon and an antique brad, simple and elegant.

This card is entered into

Stamping 411 ~ Challenge #198 Sketch

Scrapmasters Paradise Colour Combo ~ # 94

Blue and Purple Butterflies

I'm still playing with the pieces of cardstock I coloured with the Shaving Cream Technique a few weeks ago and this is my latest effort

Concord Crush, Marina Mist, Naturals Ivory....simple combo of very pretty colours.  I spritzed the background with Champagne Mist shimmer paint prior to adding the oval and butterflies, it has such a lovely shimmer that doesn't show up well in photos.  

I've dragged out a retired stamp set and stamped it up with stazon to water colour it.  The picture doesn't do it justice though as it looks a little faded, that's probably the flash as I've taken this picture at night.

This is my entry into the Easy Craft Projects Challenge this week.

Easy Craft Projects ~ Challenge # 35 Sketch

Friday Mashup ~ #1  Butterflies with Dimension

Grunge Birthday

The colour challenge over at Play Date Cafe just called out for the Shaving Cream technique, as a few of my recent posts show, I'm having fun creating with this technique.

And this card is just loaded with Technique...lets see....two different sheets of paper using the shaving cream technique.  Dry Embossing, Big shot dies and layering, background stamping, layering of stamps oh and sponging....overdone?  Unfortunately, there is no heat embossing as my heat gun died and the toaster just doesn't cut it!

I've used Extreme Elements and Grunge Rock stamp sets, these two are made for each other for Teen and Male cards and you can get such different looks with the sets each time.  I've also used Brilliant Blue (retired), Tempting Turquoise and Garden Green along with Naturals Ivory which is one of my favourite neutrals.

Play Date Cafe ~ Colour Challenge #76

Thinking of You

How lovely this card has won a Spotlight Artist on City Crafter Challenge Blog.  Thank you ladies.

I love the elegant look to this card, the Friday Mashup challenge was to use Butterflies and an optional with Dimension....well, who am I to resist butterflies!?!

Wedding Sweet flourish stamped in Encore Gold then I stamped the little swirl on the top of  one of the stamps in the same set on the ivory ribbon added a few pearls and butterflies cut from Gold Metallic CS all SU products.  The sentiment is from a retired set that I love and use quite often as the script is just beautiful.

This card is entered into the following challenges.

The (new) Friday Mashup ~ Challenge # 1 - Butterflies with Dimension

City Crafter Challenge Blog ~ Challenge #51 Cheer Up....Get Well / Thinking of You

River of Hearts

This is not in my usual style, but I quite like how sweet it looks.  

I'm challenging myself to make sure all my stamp sets see ink over the rest of this year.  This set 'Simply Said' is quite a cute set with floral hearts and dotty flowers.  I've punched out the flowers in Pacific Point and Melon Mambo and placed a dot of glue on each flower then sprinked stampin up glitter on them.

This is my entry into 

4 Crafty Chicks ~ colour challenge # 32

Unscripted Imagine

Here is another of the papers I created with the Shaving Cream technique.  I really like the way this one turned out, each time it is all so different.

This card is being entered into 

Unscripted Sketches ~ Sketch #100 

PLUS Unscripted's are celebrating 2 years of Unscripted Sketches with a Blog-Iversary party.  Contratulations to all at Unscripted!  Head on over and join in the fun.

Three in one

I recently made some beautiful papers using the shaving cream technique and used them to make this card and another one which I will post in a separate post.

I love working with pinks and this challenge was no exception.  The shaving cream technique is one that I will be repeating many times, this was my first attempt and I love the marbled look it gives.  

If you follow my blog you will know by now that I love making my own background papers, weather I use stamps and sponging or alcohol and inkers I love how it allows me to add something completely unique to my projects.

This card is entered into the following challenges.

Stamping 411 - Sketch Challenge #197

Picture Perfect Creations ~ Colour Combo #54 ~ Basic Black, Melon Mambo, Blushing Bride and Whisper White

Hand Stamped Sentiments ~ Pink-a-licious Challenge # 62

Online again

Hi all, just back online today.  I've posted new pics of my new creative space while I'm still in the process of unpacking, most of it's done.

I'm still unpacking a lot of other stuff though so not much time to craft.  Although I did make these lables for my baskets and drawers in the craft room.  Not sure when I'll be back posting new cards.  Hopefully this weekend.