Hello Autumn Card

Hi Everyone,

Unfortunately I've not been well this week but, since I'm feeling a bit better, I decided to cheer myself up by entering the Paper Smooches Sparks October Picture Perfect Challenge. The picture had lots of autumn colours and leaves for inspiration and this is what I created. Hope you like it!:

I started off with a yellow polka-dot note card from Pebbles as my card base. Next I die cut a piece of Ranger watercolour cardstock with the scalloped rectangle die from Mama Elephants Femme Frames dies. I used Distress inks in Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed to create a watercolour background for my woodland scene.

Next I stamped the tree images from the Spring Groves stamp set and the owl image from the Spookalicious stamp set, both from Paper Smooches, onto more watercolour cardstock. I used Ranger Black Tie die ink - I'm so impressed with this ink. It gives a crisp black image and is completed waterproof (I found my Memento Tuxedo black ink bleeds with water). I also stamped the hello sentiment from Paper Smooches Gently Seasoned stamp set with the same ink and die cut it with a Paper Smooches Wordbubble Die. Next I used more disress inks in Vintage Photo, Festive Berries, Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed to colour the trees and owl. I was initially a little disapointed with the colour bleeding outside the lines of the owl but then I decided it makes him look extra cute and fluffy. 

Next I watercoloured more cardstock in various colours and die cut leaves with one of the Papersmooches Seasonal Trees Dies. I adhered everything to my card with glue dots and foam squares for dimension and finished with hemp twine and a bow.

If you want to buy any of the Paper Smooches stamps and dies I used for this project, or anything else from this awesome company, then clicking on the image below will take you to their store. Happy Crafting!

CASology Guest Designer

Hi Everyone,

I'm very excited today as this is my first ever guest designer post and it's for the very awesome CASology blog. Their theme for this week is:

This got me thinking about all my favourite mushy sentiments and a particular long-time favourite of mine comes from a Mama Elephant stamp set called Love Quotes and I used this as the focal point of my card.

It's been a lovely sunny weekend here in the UK and, as the sun streamed through the window of my craft room, I feel inspired to create something bright and colourful. I still wanted to keep it CAS though so I opted for a crisp white card base with Neenah Solar White cardstock cut to A2 size. I rounded two of the corners for a more interesting shape.

I masked off the different lines of my sentiment stamp and used a different coloured pigment ink for each. From top to bottom I used Avery Elle Magenta, Avery Elle Strawberry, Avery Elle Fizz, Avery Elle Lemon Grass, Mama Elephant Pacific Blue and Mama Elephant Egg Plant. I tried to match the colours as closely as possible to the patterned paper I used from the 6x6 Fruit Stand paper pad from Doodlebug Designs.

I stamped the speechbubble image onto more Neenah cardstock using Tuxedo black ink and second generation stamping for a muted look. I then fussy cut this and drew around it onto the back of my patterned paper and fussy cut that also. I die cut a small heart from the white speech bubble to let more of the patterned paper peek through (as well as to highlight to word 'you' since that it the title of our challenge!) I layered the two shapes and adhered them with foam pads.

I completed my card by die cutting a couple more hearts from patterned paper with my Simon Says Stamp Mini Heart Dies, and adhering a few colourful sequins. The sequins I used were (clockwise from the top left corner) Pretty Pink Posh 4mm Pink Peonies, Pretty Pink Posh 6mm Amethyst, Neat and Tangled blue sequin from the Spring Mix, Neat and Tangled mint sequin from The Spring Mix, a clear sequin coloured orange with a copic marker and Pretty Pink Posh 6mm Raspberry.

I love getting comments from you all so please let me know what you think xx

You Are Spooktacular Card

Hello again,

So this is my final post of the weekend - I've had a great time beavering away in my craft room and created some projects I'm really proud of. Anyway, I think now that I've had my crafty splurge I'll aim to settle back into a one-two posts a week situation - otherwise my friends and family might start to forget what I look like.

The following card was made for the Lawnscaping challenge No. 115: Sentiments. I opted to use the halloween themed Spooktacular stamp set from Lawn Fawn as the basis of my design. In reality, Halloween isn't as big an event in the UK as it is in the US, but I really like this stamp set and I was in a creepy mood after finding, what can only be described as a monster of a spider, in my bath this morning!

I've done alot of CAS cards this weekend and I decided to do something more colourful today. I started off with a purple polkadot note card from Pebbles. I decided I wanted to diecut a moon and stars into the cardstock which required a little extra imagination as I don't have any moon-shaped dies. I created the shape by using two circle dies, one slightly smaller than the other, and partically die cutting them. I then used a tiny star die from a My Favourite Things die set called Hip Clips. Unfortunately the stars in this set are in sets of threes so I had to cut one free. I should probably say at this point that yes, it is possible to cut through the solid parts of a die using wire cutters, but also you shoud be sure to shield your eyes as the resulting tiny flying peices of metal could probably cause some serious harm - I'll admit this was not one of my most sensible moments!

So, having narrowly escaped death, or at least blindness, I added some silver glitter paper behind the night sky die cuts to add shimmer. Next I die cut some pieces of coloured card using the largest of the Small Stitched Rectangles from Lawn Fawn. I used two shades of green cardstock, Mossy Meadow and Old Olive, both from Stampin' Up. I then used the Lawn Fawn Grassy Border die to create overgrown grass for the foreground and two of the Mama Elephant Landscape Trio dies to create the hills for background. I also cut a peice of vellum from my stash using one of the the Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud border dies to make some spooky mist/clouds . Next I used the Picket Fence Border die, also from Lawn Fawn and some Baked Brown Sugar cardstock from Stampin' Up to create my rickety old fence. I snipped into the fence to make it look old and broken and set it at a slight angle on the card.

I stamped the pumpkin, gravestone and ghost images from the Spooktacular stamp set onto Neenah Solar White cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I coloured them with copic markers and fussy cut them. I adhered the cardstock layers and images to my card using tape runner and foam pads.

Since the theme is sentiments, I made sure mine was front and centre by stamping it into a speech bubble die cut made using one of the Word Bubble dies from Paper Smooches. I adhered it to the card with foam squares for extra dimension. I completed my acrd by adding a couple of 4mm and 6mm Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh both to draw more attention to the sentiment and to draw together the sparkly background and the matte foreground. And that was it - job done.

To join in with this challenge yourself, or to checkout the other entries and design team inspiration, click on the image below to go to the the corresponding Lawnscaping Challenges blog post. Happy crafting everyone xx:

Eternal Love Card

Hello again,

Well now my craft room is back in action there's no stopping me when it comes to making cards. I made this halloween-themed love note for the Paper Smooches Sparks Anything Goes Challenge for October and I think it would be perfect for any Twilight fan. PS Sparks made a special announcement on their blog this week that their weekly challenges will be coming to an end at the end of the month and, while I'm sad to see them go, I'm excited for the new monthly challenges coming up!

And now to the card. I used the vampire and bat images from the the Spookalicious stamp set from Paper Smooches. I also used the Eternal Love sentiment from the same set. I used a grey polka dot notecard from Pebbles as my card base. I then adhered a peice of Ranger Watercolor Paper onto which I die cut with a stitched frame from the Mama Elephant Femme Frames set. I used Zig Clean Color Markers in Black and Carmine Red and a waterbrush to create a creepy watercolour background.

I stamped the sentiment and bat images onto the Watercolor Paper with Versafine Onyx Black ink. I added glossy accents to one of the bats and to the heart on the sentiment for extra visual interest.

I stamped the main vampire image onto Neenah Solar White cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink. I coloured the image with copic markers and fussy cut it. Once it was adhered to the card with foam tape I used Wink of Stella to add sparkle to the cape and added a layer of glossy accents for extra shine. I also added glossy accents to his hair to create the look of a slicked-back do.

I completed my card by adding black and gold stars from Studio Calico to help lead the eye from the main image to the sentiment. Hope you like it and please do comment below as I love to hear from you all xx

P.S. If you click on the icon below it will take you to the Paper Smooches store where you can pick up all their awesome stamps and dies:

Another Create a Smile card for the November Guest Designer Search

Hello again,

Well it turns out I had a little longer until the deadline than I thought so I decided to create a 'sister' card to my original entry - I love the Whimsical Wheels stamp set so much I just couldn't resist the opportunity to use it again. There's still a little time to enter yourself if you'd like. Just click on the image below and it will take you staright to the original blog post:

So I chose to make another little love note card - I know it's not valentines day but it's just what I felt like creating I guess. To be honest I'm probably just putting off starting the Xmas cards - there's nothing quite like needing to do something to make me immediately want to do something else!

My card case is good old Neenah Solar White 110lb cut to A2 size. I rounded one of the corners for a more interesting shape. I decided to stick to pastel colours and a washi tape background as per my previous card. I used a really cute grid washi with little hearts and the word 'love' written in pencil. I'm not sure where I got if from but I love it.

Next I stamped the train and carriage images from the Wimsical Wheels stamps set from Create a Smile with Momento Tuxedo Black Ink. Again I used second generation stamping for a more subtle outline which helped to capture some of the fine lines and details in the stamp. I also thought it looked a little like pencil lead to give an almost hand drawn feel. I coloured the image with Copic Markers, fussy cut it and adhered it to my card with foam pads.

Next I created a pink ombre look on a scrap of card and stamped my sentiment onto it with more second generation stamping in Tuxedo Black ink and also Avery Elle Pigment Ink in the shade Mint To Be. This sentiment has to be one of the best ever. No only does it fit with the cute train image, it also reminds me of an episode of the simpsons when Lisa gives Ralf a card with this sentiment on - Love it!

I added hearts to the carriages, die cut from card scraps using my Simon Says Stamp mini hearts dies. I also cut heart shaped puffs of steam from cotton wool pads and adhered the whole lot to my card with Claudia Hellmuth Multi-medium matte liquid adhesive. I completed my card by adding glossy accents to the tarin and heart next to my sentiment.

Anyway, hope you like my card - all comments gratefully received xx

Create a Smile November Guest Designer Search

Hi guys,

So Create a smile are looking for a guest designer for next month and I thought I'd apply. Click on the image below to check out their blog post and why not give it a go yourself:

So here's my card. I used my current favourate create a smile stamp set, Whimsical Wheels, to create my design. Let me know what you think in the comments and, if you're interested, read on for how I created it:

I used Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock for my card base, cut to A2 size. I then used some grid patterned washi tape for the background of my little scene. I used the digger image from the Whimsical wheels stamp set and stamped it using Momento Tuxedo Black ink. I second generation stamping to create a muted grey lined image which I think works well for this mainly pastel coloured card. I then coloured my image using copic markers. I used a coat of glossy accents to give it some shine and adhered it to the card using foam pads.

I die cut heart shapes from pink and red cardstock scraps using my Simon Says Stamp mini heart dies and adhered them in a 'heap' using tombo mono liquid adhesive. I used Bella Letters from Mama Elephant to create my sentiment. Again I used Tuxedo Black ink and second generation stamping and I used more washi tape to give a pop of colour. I put the sentiment on a strip of card and adhered it with more foam pads.

Robot Happy Birthday

Hi Everyone,

It feels great to get back to card making after such a long time - I've been reorganising my craft room and, what with work and other distractions, it's taken forever to do. Well now it's done and I intend to be getting my craft on as often as possible.  

And what better way to get back into the swing of things than with a CASology challenge. It's week number 166 over on their blog and the theme is science - what a great excuse to use these super cute robots from the Beep Boop stamp set from Lawn Fawn. I added strips of washi to the background to make the images pop. This tape is really awesome and reminds me so much of the exercise books I used when I was in science class at school. 

Before I show you any images of my project I just want to apologise for the slightly dodgy lighting in the photos. Unfortunately I managed to damage my light diffuser box and one of my lamps in the great craft room redesign and I'm waiting on new supplies to arrive. I probably should have waited unil the replacements arrived before photographing projects but I just couldn't wait to get back to blogging. Any comments gratefully received as I love hearing from my crafty friends:

I started off with a card base made from Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock. Next I adhered some strips of washi tape ont the front to make a background (I'm not sure where I got this tape as it's been in my stash for a while I think).

Next I stamped images from Lawn Fawn's Beep Boop stamp set onto more solar white cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I coloured the robots with Copic markers and fussy cut cut them.

To make more robots look more metallic I covered then in a layer of clear Wink of Stella marker and then finished off with a layer of Ranger glossy accents. Finally I adhered the images and sentiments to my card with different thicknesses of foam tape and glue dots. It doesn't really come accos on the photos but it adds some extra visual interest to an otherwise simple card in real life.

That's all from me for now. Don't forget to check out the CASology blog post for all the other great projects. Clicking on the image below will take you straight there: