Play Date Cafe #91 & The Twinery

Hello there!

Sometimes there are just some really lovely people in the world.  My card this week is for one of them!  This friend of mine is always happy, a pleasure to work with and so very helpful and kind.


Last week she made me some wheat free chocolate orange chip cookies (yes Sarah, I mean you!), so unexpected but a delicious surprise (SO my kind of friend!)

I may/may not have shared with you that I find negative people really difficult to be around.  I like to see the positive side of life and actually feel physically drained if people are really negative around me.  That’s what I love about Sarah, she’s full of life and full of fun!  You truly are one of a kind Sarah, I’m so pleased to have met you and to be able to call you my friend! (On a side note she has a great place in Cornwall that you can rent if you are ever down that way, so let me know if you need a break lol)

This week we say goodbye to our lovely Fiona :o(  She is such an inspiration and I will really miss her.  I love seeing what her latest creation will be.  This was one of my favourite pieces of hers, she'd based it on something she'd seen over at the Etsy Inspired Challenge when I was on their DT.  Do pop over to her blog and leave her some love, I'm sure she would love you to visit.

 I had seen it in the Etsy shop and I thought ooh to be able to make one of those would be fab, and then .. she did!!!  I'm so in awe!  Look after yourself Fee, keep in touch and I promise I will surprise you one day and make that crochet flower ;o)


So.. my card.. well this week over at The Play Date Cafe it’s ‘Color Splash’ week and you get to pick your own colour splash!  Isn’t this picture fun?!  I have to say I always find our Colour Splash Challenges a .. challenge!  I like my colour SOOOO much it pushes me into a corner when I’m only allowed to use a ‘pop’ of colour!!  Anyway, I’ve been wanting to play around with this Lawn Fawn set for a few weeks, and thought that seeing as Sarah had made me ‘orange’ cookies I should use orange as my colour splash!

Here’s the how to..

1. Stamp funky leafy image several times to create the background.  I used Versafine (my new favourite black ink - it's SO black!)
2. Cut rectangular panel in white cardstock, and a larger one in orange
3. Stamp sentiment on the white panel and mat onto the orange panel using pop dots
4. Round the top corners on both panels
5. Wrap some black saddlestitch ribbon around the lower edge of the panel, attaching with scortape
6. Wrap orange baker’s twine around the panel.  Tie on an additional triple bow
7. Add prima flower to the centre of the bow
8. Attach the completed panel to the base card to finish
9. Stand back, look at the card and think to yourself, uh oh that might be just a tad more than a ‘pop’ of colour, oh well!

Our sponsors this week are The Twinery.  I really love their twine, it's so soft and it comes in lots of gorgeous colours, especially this orange-y one (or Mandarin as it's officially known!)  The green one is another of my favourites.

Our colour splash challenges are normally really popular so keep creating to give yourself more chances to win!

For more information on the prize and to see what pops of colour the other girls have chosen visit our main blog here.

If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC91, and remember to stick to black and white as your main colours with just a splash of colour to be eligible to win this week's prize!

I will be back with some more Summer Card Camp fun tomorrow.  I’m gonna miss that course!

Ciao for now!

Supplies:

Stamps: Lawn Fawn 'Blissful Botanicals', PTI 'Signature Greetings'
Papers: Bazzill Cardstock
Accessories: The Twinery baker’s twine, Prima rose, black ribbon from stash

Summer Card Camp Week 3

Hello!

If you're looking for my Play Date Cafe card please click here.

Have you been joining in on all the fun over at the Summer Card Camp?  I hope they run another one soon, it’s been great fun.  For those of you that haven’t seen it, basically it’s Kristina Werner and Jennifer McGuire running card making lessons, techniques and videos, along with some colour inspiration for four weeks. 

I thought I would try my hand at different styles in the same colours…



This week’s colours are monochromatic with the addition of red and white.


For my first card (above) , I used one of Kristina's sets with Lawn Fawn’s Critters on the Farm set, plus some brown thickers for the sentiment, a MS punch, strip of chocolate cardstock and some MME Stella & Rose patterned paper all adhered to the kraft card base.  I used Copics to colour in the cow and if you look closely you will see I gave her eyelashes!  I just LoVe it when you can add a bit more whimsy yourself!!



For my second card I used Hero Arts Flower Swirl Vine stamp.  I wanted to create an older style so I simply stamped it in Ranger Distress Ink Vintage Photo and mixing the distress ink with a bit of water I coloured the outer edges of some of the larger flowers.  I added some Ranger Distress Ink in Frayed Burlap to age it up a bit and I then added pearls to random centres, matted it onto red cardstock and then mounted that onto brown cardstock which I attached to the base.  I stamped the sentiment and then tied around a piece of twine before attaching the panel to the card base with pop dots.  To finish I spritzed the whole card with water to try and give it a bit more ageing.  I think if I was doing it again I would stamp the sentiment after spritzing so that it looks more crisp rather than a spider crawling across the page look that I have!



Finally a very quick and simple card using Tonic butterflies that I got from over at The Stamp Attic, a sentiment from Waltzingmouse Fancy Phrases, some Copics and some little silver pearls.  I simply coloured some punched butterflies with my Copics, alternating the colours so that I could layer them as shown.  I think they’re quite effective and SUCH a quick card to make too!  No more stressing if you run out of time to make a card, this is a definite quick go to card design!

That’s it from me for today.  If you’re doing Summer Camp let me know, I’d love to pop by and see how you’ve interpreted the colours this week!

Play Date Cafe #90 & Our Craft Lounge

Hello!

Wanna join in some colourful fun with us over at the Play Date Cafe this week?!  We have a great DT, great sponsors and great colours, what more could you want?!!  I’m really excited to share my card with you today because I got sent the ka-utest of stamp sets by our sponsor, Our Craft Lounge.  I know that a lot of thought went into the choosing of sets for our DT girls and I was over the moon when my happy mail arrived, so thank you Our Craft Lounge!!



We have some gorgeous rich colours for you this week.  Jax describes them as eggplant, fuschia and orangesicle. 

Here is the colour story…


Aren’t they gorgeous!!  Our Jax is also over the moon to have made it into the Gallery Idol top 20!  How clever is she, you just have to go and check out her first round entry here, she is SO creative.  Well done Jax, you totally deserve it!

So what are you waiting for, get those fab colours out of your stash and get playing.  I wonder what you will create based on this week’s colours, can’t wait to see!

Big thanks to Our Craft Lounge for sponsoring us and the prize winner too.  For more information on the prize and to see what the other girls have come up with for this week’s colours pop on over to the main blog here.

Our Guest Designer this week is Kendra Wietstock so pop by and see what beauty she’s created for you! If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC90, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win this week's prizes!

Supplies:

Papers: Polka dot paper from stash (sorry, not sure who!), Bazzill cardstock
Dies: Nestabilities circle and scallop
Accessories: The Twinery baker’s twine
Copics: As shown below

Quick Mini Butterfly Card

Hi everyone

I hope you've had a great weekend!

I have a couple of quick cards to share with you that I made using my gorgeous Prickley Pear butterfly set.  It’s very similar to the ones I posted recently, but I wanted to switch it up a bit by using a funky patterned butterfly and some mix and match patterned papers.

I also made this one using some of the Summer Camp Colours for week two, but with a slight variation.  I just LOVE these happy colours, they make me smile, very 'Ruby' colours!!

For more information please pop over to The Stamp Attic.

Have a great day!

Color Me Creative – Favourite Colouring Technique

Yay, it’s the weekend, I LOVE the weekends, time for a bit of laziness and some serious cardmaking too!

We have a new challenge over at Color Me Creative, to use your fave colouring technique.  Now being a newbie I don’t actually have that many under my belt yet, but I really like blending and feathering.



I started my flower with the intention of using the feathering technique, but as I worked from the dark colour one side into the centre, and then from light into the centre on the opposite side I started to really like the accent that the white space created and decided to leave it.  I  guess I’ve just really blended! Below is a close up of the flower.. ok so it’s not technically correct but I really like the effect of it.  What do you think?



Do you like that stunning flower image?  It’s by Tiffany Doodles, our sponsor for this challenge, her digi images are just fabulous.  I used to be on Tiffany’s design team so it was really lovely to get the opportunity to play with some of her digis again.  I’ve missed her!








As soon as I was asked to choose an image and saw this one in her shop my face lit up, isn’t it just gorgeous!  What’s fun about digi images is that you can resize them too.  This particular digi stamp also comes with a Nestie compatible border, see image below, which I would have used if I hadn’t wanted to try out this technique from Jennifer McGuire where you create a little window using acetate.  I haven’t tried this technique before, but it’s so lovely seeing the reflection of the little pearls on the inside of the card inside, I love it.



For my card I used Week Two’s colours from the Summer Card Camp series which I’m thoroughly enjoying.  We are already half way through the camp,  it’s fun having something in your inbox each day to inspire and motivate you into action!



Now these are my kinda colours!  YUM-EE!!! 

So pop on over to each of the DT to see what they’ve chosen as their fave technique, there’s LOADS of loveliness to see!

Charlene Randall
Brook Guinn
Anary Baumgarth
Melanie LaBelle
Marie Gamber
Ruby McGuire (that’s me!)
Pat St. Martin
Jenn Cochran
Michele Spera
Sandie Dunne

Supplies:

Stamps: Tiffany Doodles ‘Succulent’ digi image, Lawn Fawn ‘Blissful Botanicals’, PTI ‘Damask Designs’ 
Papers: Bazzill Cardstock, Cryogen
Accessories: Prima ePearls, Signo Uni-Ball White Pen
Copics:

PDCC 89 & The Craft’s Meow

It’s Thursday, which means time for another great week of colour inspiration from The Play Date Cafe!

You are the fairest of them all!  Yes, you!  Go take a look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself how gorgeous you are lol

Now that you know you’re gorgeous come and check out one of these fabby stamp sets from The Craft’s Meow!  The design team were really fortunate to be sent some free stamps from them and I got one that I can colour, which as you know is my new favourite thing! 
This week’s challenge colours are pastels, a real challenge for me personally with my bright colour preferences, so I had to work a bit harder with it, but it gave me the chance to use some of my pastel Copics.



This is the colour palette that we got to work with.  Now I know you’re all going to ooh and aah over it because it truly is very pretty, but for some reason I just struggle with pale colours.  I wonder if personality is linked to colour, if so I must be really loud!!



Jax describes these colours as mint, buttercream and taupe.  This card is pretty self explanatory so I won’t go into much detail other than to say I did my first bit of ground work.  I used three different shades of tonal colours, T1, T3 and T5 and then used my blender to remove some of the colour.  I’m due to do a lesson on this at some point soon so it will be interesting to see what definition can actually be added.  Her socks look a bit yellow in this picture but they are actually more of a vanilla colour in real life, you will just have to take my word for it

Big thanks to The Craft’s Meow for sponsoring us and the prize winner too.  For more information on the prize and to see what the other girls have come up with for this week’s colours pop on over to the main blog here.

Our Guest Designer this week is Nicky Hsu so don't forget to check out her lovely creation too! If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC89, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win this week's prizes!

Supplies:

Papers: MME Stella & Rose 'Mabel', Bazzill cardstock 
Dies: Nesties
Accessories: Buttons from stash, twine, white Signo pen
Copics: As shown below

Summer Card Camp Week One & Lots of Catching Up!

Hello there everyone!

This is a long post so feel free to just look at the pictures lol.

I’m back today to share a few things with you, firstly a card that I’ve made for the Summer Card Camp being run by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner.  It is so much fun!  The camp started on Monday and we were set a colour challenge, see pic below.  This card is for week one’s colour combo..




Using my Copic markers I coloured in some butterflies using the feathering technique where you blend two different colours together.  Kristina taught a technique for using 6 x 6 paper across a wide card so I thought as I had the same papers I would give it a go.  Such an easy technique and as she said it was one of those why didn’t I think of that moments!
I got to play with goodies from The Stamp Attic. The butterfly die and matching stamps from Prickley Pear are just GORGEOUS!  This is my set




There is also the set below that matches the die too, which is on my wish list.  I also LOVE this birdcage set.  YUMMY!



I have another card to share with you that got published in Through the Craftroom Door Magazine recently.  I thought I’d posted it but now realise I hadn’t.  Quite a simple card, I used Madeline Prima papers, oval nesties, a Pure Innocence digi and then some luscious pink ribbon to finish it all off.



The lovely Marie who’s on the DT with me over at Color Me Creative gave me this ‘sweet’ blog award!  Thank you Marie, that’s really sweet of you to think of me.



There are three things that you are supposed to do to accept this "Sweet" award.

• Thank the person who nominated you for this wonderful award and make a link to their blog…. check
• Name 7 random things about yourself …. see below… check
• Pass this award on to 8 wonderful cyber friends … hmmm a toughie!

I really have no idea who to pass this onto.  I have made so many wonderful blogging friends, but I would love to pass it to everyone that follows my blog.  It is such a treat seeing new people adding themselves as followers or to see that more people have subscribed to my feeds, it truly makes my day!  If it wasn’t that people read my blog I probably would have given up ages ago, so THANK YOU!!

Ok, so the promised 7 random things…

I hate the way I speak, I think I sound really common but others tell me I don’t

I dislike tins/packages being put in my cupboards the wrong way round.  They have labels on for a reason, so the labels should be showing lol

I am besotted with my little dog, Lulu, and take her with me wherever possible, I like teaching her new tricks when I can. She is very clever but cheeky with it, she still thinks she’s a puppy despite being three in September so we’re often chasing her around the house where she thinks it’s funny to run off with socks and slippers!

I love to visit cities. So far I’ve been to Dublin, Rome, Paris, Barcelona, and obviously living in the UK .. London, but I would love to visit more

I love 6 x 6 mini pads.  Wendy over at The Stamp Attic calls me the paper pad queen!

I love scented candles, there is nothing nicer than having an aroma of perfume in your home

I love making up fun words, like muchly, yumdiness, hambalambas (ham), lulloo (love you), that kind of thing.  Sad, but true!

Oh, one more thing before I go



Do you like reading?  Suzanne over at Color Me Creative is setting up a reading group soon,where reading and crafting come together!  She will be sharing all of the details soon, watch this space!

If you’ve signed up for Summer Card Camp I hope to see you over there.  I’m looking forward to seeing what this next week brings.  My favourite day so far was when Kristina taught us some graphic design principles… fascinating!!!!

I have issues – Paper Issues!

Guess what!!  I made it onto the Paper Issues Creative Team!  I’m SO excited. Woohoo, I’m doing the happy dance!  I am joining some really talented girls so thanks Cassie for inviting me to join the team :o) Pop on over to the blog to see who else is being added, you’re in for a treat. I’m looking forward to joining in on the fun!








The latest challenge theme is to create something red, white and blue, so I thought that I would make a card for the US girls that will be celebrating Independence Day on Monday.  I have worked with lots of US teamies during my various DT roles, and wanted to celebrate with them somehow.  I know there are a lot of US gals on the Paper Issues team, so this is for you too!

I thought I would play around with the idea of rainbows.  I won a gift certificate over at DeNami a while back and haven’t got around to inking this up yet.  My rainbow’s colours are a bit random but that’s one of the things I love about card making, it doesn’t matter does it?!  They say we are the artists so anything goes!

This close up shows a bit more of the dimension..



For this card I started off by tying a big blue bow around the card and then created the little panel.  I stamped a cloud on the top right, added a paper pieced rainbow over the top of it and then added another cloud and the little Copic coloured chick in the balloon, with pop dots to give added dimension.  I’m not sure if everyone calls them ‘pop dots’, but basically they are the little foam pads, I somehow got into the habit of calling them pop dots and the name has stuck!  (I've had a few people give me puzzled looks wondering what I'm talking about when I mention them!)  To finish I stamped the sentiment, rounded the top corners of the panel and attached it with more pop dots.  I also rounded the top corners of the card base to match.

Tip: I didn’t have the right blue to match the ribbon, my blue was a bit dull,  so I just stamped my rainbow onto white cardstock (suitable for Copics) and coloured it in with a blue Copic to match.  I just put a dot of each of the closest colours down onto a piece of scratch card and then held it against the ribbon to see which was the closest match.. voila, your own hand coloured cardstock. I love that you can use your Copics for more than just colouring images.  Have you tried colouring in embellishments yet, or your ribbon?  It’s great to be able to colour co-ordinate ribbons and things with your cards.

So if you’ve got nothing to do pop on over to the Paper Issues blog and check out some of the talent over there!

Happy blurfing!

Supplies:
Stamps: DeNami Design ‘Rainbow’ and ‘Chickie in Balloon’ , Hero Arts ‘Sky’s the Limit’
Accessories: Ribbon from stash, assorted cardstock scraps
Copics: