Monday 27 July 2009


Back to basics challenge



Sometimes I get overwhelmed with all the craft goodies in my craft room and just seem to collect rather than use them. I look at some of the fab cards on blogs and feel overwhelmed. They are amazing and I couldn't make some of them even if I tried to copy them.



From time to time I like to set myself challenges and I really enjoyed this one. Use white card, one stamp and one inkpad to make 5 different cards. I used a Stampin' Up Real rose pad. I thought it would be really hard, but it got easier as I went along. Ok so none are masterpieces, but I would be happy to send them and most of all I really enjoyed making them. I've left the images big, so if you click on them you can see the backgrounds in more detail.



The card above is simply stamped and layered on a red border. The border was made by running the ink pad around the egde of the card to give a soild layer of colour. I cut my pieces to rough size and cut acurately after sticking, this way I only need to ink the edge. I guess I cheated a little bit using some ribbon.




The second card didn't go as planned. I tried to stamp the swirly parts of the stamp all over the background but it just looked odd. I used a matching marker to isolate the images but after I'd stamped a few on the right I didn't like it. So I rubbed over the images with a baby wipe to dye the card pink. This gave quite an interesting effect with the colour getting lighter across the card. The layering was coloured as above for one layer. The other layer was done by dragging the ink pad diagonally over the egde leaving an interesting effect.



This background was done with cut and dry foam to cover the paper in a random way, this was sprayed with a fine mist of water (you can just wet your hand and splash) dab the paper dry with kitchen roll to remove some of the water, leaving tiny random dots. If you don't have cut and dry try kitchen roll or baby wipes.



I used the rest of the water splash card to make this sideways card - though you could use it either way up. The torn edge is inked along the edge.


I cropped the image to make a square, The first layer is card pressed, with my fingers, against the ink pad to pick up the pattern of the linen ink pad. The third layer is just the flower heads stamped randomly. I used a marker, but if you have a cats eye or dew drop inkpad you could use the point of the pad. The final layer is just direct to paper again. Don't worry about overlapping lines it just adds an interesting effect. Fab easy technique which means you always have matching card.


I was going to stop at five cards, but this last card uses up all the bits I had left over. It was going to be an ATC but the measurements were not quite right. This uses prima flowers and a glitter brad. This is my favorite.


I hope this has inspired you to have a go at your own challenge. Please share any ideas you have.

Sunday 26 July 2009

More Loads of Love!I had a play with the bits leftover from the last card and came up with this slightly different version. The sanded stamp works really well with loads of different backgrounds and is great for men cards.


Saturday 25 July 2009

Loads of Love! Following on from the butterfly card, I made this with the rest of my sheet of kraft card. I roughed up some pretty paper with a more mustard mini ink pad; to give a more manly feel and used my new Stampin Up set Loads of Love. Bits of the truck are darkened using a grey marker. I find making cards for men quite difficult, so I must make a few more cards with this set.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend. I'm going for a Mongolian barbecue tonight, it's my son's birthday so guess who will be getting this card :-)

Friday 24 July 2009

Kraft Butterfly I stamped this butterfly a while ago and sprayed it with a gold glimmer mist. This bled the colours whilst keeping most of the detail. I had no idea what to do with it, but it was far too nice to bin. Here I've used the card layout from Heather, I love her kraft cards but this is my first. I couldn't find a designer paper to link the Laura Ashley ribbon and butterfly, so I stamped my own.

Tuesday 21 July 2009

Tilda thinking...




This card looks like how I feel today. Tilda sits and wonders what to do but can't quite bring herself to do anything! Still I did make some fab rock cakes - yum!

Monday 20 July 2009

Glitter Butterfly



This card is cased from one of my fav blogs - pine is here. The whole background card is glitter and the butterfly is from Elusive images.

Having a relaxing day off work. Trying to make some cards, but my heart just isn't in it. Fingers crossed I will be feeling more creative later in the week.

Sunday 19 July 2009

Congratulations Judith for winning my mini blog candy of crochet flowers and stamped images.
Wish This is my favorite Leanne Ellis image. I always wonder what she is wishing for. Nice easy birthday card with a few quirky touches.

Saturday 18 July 2009

Butterfly card





Not sure about this card. I like the flowers but the butterfly is a bit lost against the designer paper. This butterfly is from an amazing set from Elusive Images. The sentiment is from Kirsty Wiseman.

Friday 17 July 2009

Flowers







This Leanne Ellis image is a bit cutsie for me, but it goes well with the Stampin Up paper. Not sure what happened with the flower, it doesn't look quite so odd in real life.

I'm looking forward to going to the theatre tonight - the tart and the vicars wife! I'm looking forward to a good laugh.





Thursday 16 July 2009

Listen honey....it's not nice to ask a woman her age, but if you must know I'm 22!




I love funny images, but find them hard to find. I hope this one makes you smile.



It may just be because it's summer, but I'm enjoying using flowers on my cards. I tend to make clean uncluttered cards, so I find them difficult to use. I wish I could add lots of embelishments but it just doesn't work for me. If it looks unfinished then I'm done! These felt beauties are from Stampin Up.

Wednesday 15 July 2009

Wacky flower





Time and time again I find myself drawn back to this background and layout from Dyan's blog. The lovely quirky stem is from blonde moments and the other stamps from Stampin up. I am planning to go to the September mini Ranger workshop at Dyan's shop - Art From the Heart. I wish I still lived in Yorkshire then I could do all her classes...

Monday 13 July 2009

Another crochet flower



My cyber friend Anne sent me some suger nellie images including the one above. So far I have bought 3 of the images she sent me and now I have this one on order. For me swapping images is a great way of finding out if I will use an image, but doesn't seem to be a way of saving money - LOL!

Sunday 12 July 2009

Crochet flowers mini blog candy

Sorry have have been absent for the last few weeks. Work has been very busy and I just haven't felt like stamping. Instead a had a go at crocheting flowers and ended up with a big pile of flowers and no idea what to do with them. I based my flowers on the inside flower on this blog, but I used double crochet rather than triple crochet on the first row.

Here is a card I made in two slightly different colourways using one of my flowers. The image is from sugar nellie and the papers are Stampin Up.


For a chance to win 10 crochet flowers and some stamped images please leave a comment below. If possible please leave a link to any cards where you have used crochet flowers. I will anounce the winner next Sunday. Good luck. Anne x