PDCC 88 & Echo Park

Yay, it’s time for another play date over at The Play Date Cafe and we have some scrummy colours lined up for you this week, you will LoVe them!  I wanted to make a little card for my man, Ian, this is what I created..


 I had seen Betsy Veldman’s PTI Make it Monday video on using the tissue paper technique so thought it would be fun to have a go.  It was a lot easier than I thought it would be actually.  I’m really pleased with the texture.

Here’s how to make it..

1. Stamp the background using the little ticket from Lawn Fawn’s Admit One set in Ranger distress ink, Tumbled Glass
2. Use the tissue paper technique to cover the card base.  I used a light blue tissue paper
3. Die cut two nestie shapes and attach to card base as shown
4. Cut a strip of paper and attach across the centre of the card
5. Stamp the little ferris wheel and colour with Copics (colours shown below)
6. Stamp the #1 stamp directly onto the card base
7. Stamp the star onto yellow dp, cut out and adhere to card base
8. Stamp sentiment onto white card stock and attach to card using pop dots, adding pearls to either side of the wording
9. Add a brad to the centre of the ferris wheel before attaching to the card, again using pop dots to give added dimension (I managed to find a cute little metal screw brad)
10. So… Did he like it?!  Well, he tells me again and again that men just ‘don’t do cards’ lol, but I was gonna make him one anyway!  He is such a support to me with my work and just in general and I wanted him to know how much I appreciate him.  He liked the card, but his face was kind of, ‘Ok, so you’re giving me a card because…???’ Really funny!

Look at this super fab colour story for this week… Scrummy isn’t it!


 As you will see I used a little bit of artistic licence with the colours!

Our Guest Designer this week is Debby Hughes and there's a great Echo Park prize up for grabs. Pop on over to the Cafe for more information and to link your post.  If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC88, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win this week's prizes!

Don’t forget to pop by all of the girls’ blogs too, they have loads more inspiration for you.
Ciao for now!

Supplies:
Dies: Nesties Labels 1
Stamps: Lawn Fawn ‘Admit One’
Papers: Echo Park ‘A Walk in the Park’
Inks: Ranger Distress in Tumbled Glass
Accessories: ePearls, Copics as shown below, tissue paper

Distressed?!

I do hope you're not distressed!

What is your weather like where you are?  I hope it’s not too hot because I am sending you some warm thoughts today!  It's quite warm here today, with a cloudy blue sky, but I'm told it's going to cloud over.

I have a card to share that we made during one of my workshops – using distress inks as watercolours.   I made this using some Hero Arts yumminess!



I’m sure by now you realise that I do like my bright colours so it was fun seeing how I could use muted colours to create something more my own style.

All the details of how to make it can be found over at The Stamp Attic.

Ciao for now!

Color Me Creative– Folds, Pleats and/or Ruffles - Yikes!

Hi there

I hope you’re having a great weekend.  Ian and Tinks are doing a five week cookery course each Saturday so last week we had Cottage Pie for lunch, it was great.  I didn’t have to cook a thing!  This week they made a Lavender and Vanilla Panna Cotta with a Strawberry Coulis and some Ginger Biscuits.  They will be chefs before you know it!  Well the verdict.. Gorgeous but oh boy how many calories?!!  I’ve had a taste but decided I’d better leave it in the fridge or it will end up on my hips lol.  With them out I got to do a face mask and just chill out with a coffee and a crafting magazine, something I don’t do very often, ahhhh luv-erly!

So onto my card.. This week’s Color Me Creative challenge is all about ruffles, folds and pleats.


Here is the photo inspiration..

We are being sponsored by Tiddly Inks and I chose this fab little image called 'Everyday Princess', isn't she a sweetie!   I love their images, they are really cute.  Thanks for sponsoring us Tiddly Inks.

In real life my card isn’t wonky, I need to work on my photography skills after I’ve learnt Copics I think lol.  So.. how did I make it?  Well I had just started Class Two, of which the first video teaches you how to do ruffles, pleats and folds, so I printed off a couple of pages of images on A4 cardstock and watched the video over and over again, pausing as I tried each little section of her dress. Trust me, Susanna makes it look a lot easier than it is!

I’m actually really lucky because Ian paints a lot of miniature figures so after each attempt I would show it to him and he would help me work out where to put the folds and what would need to be made darker.  It’s not perfect, but if you’d seen the first one I did you will see I made a whole lot of progress!!  Trust me, it was awful!

Putting the card together was simple, just a couple of My Mind’s Eye papers, some baker’s twine, corner rounder and  a stamped sentiment and card done!  Now pop on over to see what the rest of the girls have created..

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: Waltzingmouse Stamps
Papers: My Mind’s Eye
Accessories: Baker’s twine from The Twinery, Uniball Signo White Pen
Copics:


After I took the photo I realised I hadn’t put in my E11 so you would need to add that into the mix!

I do hope you join in this challenge.  They are absolutely brilliant for getting you to learn new techniques. Yes it can be a little frustrating when it doesn’t quite go right but when you persist you really do get out of it what you put in.  Practice, practice, practice!

PDCC 87 & Stampendous

Happy Thursday!  It’s nearly the weekend, yay!

We spent most of yesterday at the hospital, my poor Tinks (11yr old daughter) has injured her knee.  It’s been going on for about 10 weeks now, so it’s an MRI next week for us, hopefully we will get to the bottom of it soon.  She can’t weight bear, she’s on crutches at the minute, bless her.  She’s so sore.

Anyway, enough of my news. What do we have in store for you today over at The Play Date Cafe?  We are being sponsored this week by Stampendous and I was lucky enough to get sent one of their new Fran•táge collection stamps, Cling Dragonfly Vine. 



This is a very different style for me.  I love what other people do with these stamps but I was a bit unsure at first what to make so I decided to have a play with some distress inks and pulled out some silver embossing powder.  I haven’t used silver for SO long, it was fun just playing around with our colour story this week to see what I could come up with. 

For this tag I simply die cut the tag and using Versamark I stamped the dragonfly (twice, once completely and the second time just for the wings) and embossed in silver.  I then smooched over some distress inks, spritzed with water and then once dry added another layer.  I then cut the wings out and attached with pop dots, finishing off with the ribbon and ePearls.

Thanks for sponsoring us Stampendous! It’s always good to step outside of your comfort zone and try something a little different.  I keep looking at magazines and seeing the gorgeous techniques for building your own papers with inks and spritzers etc, so it was about time I just got on with it!  I'm really pleased how it turned out, Tinks said she thinks it's beautiful, which is quite a compliment from her, she doesn't hold back lol

This is our colour story..



The red beads remind me of a necklace I had when I was Tink’s age, I felt like a million dollars when I wore it!!  Thanks for the happy memory Jax!

Our Guest Designer this week is Stephanie Severin and there's a great prize up for grabs. Pop on over to the Cafe for more information and to link your post.  If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC87, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win this week's prizes!

Don’t forget to pop by all of the girls’ blogs too, they have loads more inspiration for you.

Ciao for now!

Supplies:
Dies: Go Kreate ‘Concentric Tags’
Stamps: Stampendous ‘Cling Dragonfly Vine’
Inks: Ranger Distress in Stormy Sky, Black Soot and Barn Door
Accessories: ePearls, ribbon from stash

Butterfly Craziness!

Hello!

Well it’s official, I’m back in my butterfly mad zone!

I have been trying to play along with CAS-ual Fridays as often as possible so that I can explore the CAS style.  When I saw the challenge this week I just knew I had to play along and just couldn’t get the challenge theme out of my head which is ‘Color Blocking’.

It started with this card

and ended up like this…

I just couldn’t stop lol.  I’m slowly working through my Color Me Creative course and love colouring now, as often as I can.  I finished my final homework for Class 1 at the weekend.  I’m so excited about starting Class 2 and getting into the nitty gritty of Copic colouring.  I’ve learnt so many fun tips by doing the classes, how to blend, the rule of 3 colour, how to add shadows, colouring hair, different colour combos, highlighting etc and I’m starting to meet some lovely Copic addicts friends along the way.
Sometimes I feel like colouring, but not stretching my little brain too far so if I’m not sure what to colour then some evenings I’ve been colouring in these GORGEOUS Skipping Stone Designs butterflies.  I find it so relaxing.  I don’t have to think about it, I can just sit and colour and watch tv too if I feel like it!  So more about these cards..  This is the CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week..



This is what they said about it..

This week we are Color Blocking: place blocks, or areas of color, next to each other to form a cohesive design on your Clean And Simple creation.

I haven’t done colour blocking before so I just had to play around.  As I wasn’t quite sure where to start (I kept going back to something along the lines of the pink card below as a layout) I decided to use some of the DT members’ layouts as my inspiration, almost like mini sketches.



Which one is your favourite?  I think mine is the blue one, I love those little squares and that blue is so bright and vibrant in real life, and sparkly too where I’ve done it onto Cryogen cardstock.

You will be seeing more butterflies of a different type from me over the next few weeks.  I’m running a workshop using various types of butterflies over at The Stamp Attic on Monday 11 July and I’ve got a fantastic new butterfly and die set to show you too, you will LoVe it!

If you’re doing the Color Me Creative Classes pop by and say hi to me.  I’d love to get to know you and to learn more about Copics with you!  If you haven’t signed up pop on over there, you’re missing out on all the fun!

Stamp Attic

Hi there

I recently ran a workshop over at the Stamp Attic where we were making card shapes with Nesties and looking at different ways of layering them.

This is one of the simple cards we made..


For all of the details please visit The Stamp Attic.  I’ve got more cards to share with you and I’m hoping to run another workshop over there soon, so watch this space.

I'll be back tomorrow with a card for Etsy Inspired Challenge.

PDCC 86

Hi there

I hope you’ve been having a good week.  I could sleep for England (as they say over here in the UK!)  I’m really tired at the minute.

Well, it’s time for another Play Date Cafe challenge.  The colours this week are sure to make you happy, they are really bright and fun!

I made this card on Tuesday, my best friend was over and I really wasn’t in the mood to make a card, but with her gentle ‘nagging’ this is what I created!  She is just the best, whenever I am ‘stuck’ for colour she just happens to bring along something as a little pressie for me that just works out perfectly!  See those little flowers, those were my little pressie this week, how fab are they for a colour match for this week’s colours?


These are the yummy colours, how happy are these?  They just conjure up summer, don’t they?!

I thought it was about time I got out my little ‘friendship jar’ set out again that she bought me for my birthday last year.  I just love this little set, it’s fun to stamp up and cut out too.  The intention of getting this set was to make up little jars of jam/chutneys which I would then label to give away as gifts. What actually happened was I made up a fabulous Apple & Blackberry Jam recipe that we all loved so much we ended up eating it for months and only gave away one jar lol.  I always thought jam was one of those things that you needed special kitchen utensils for.. the preserving pans and all the gadgets, but actually the recipe I found online is simple yet delicious and not a single preserving pan in sight!  So delicious that we will definitely be making it again this year, but maybe this time we will need to make (and give away) more than we eat lol.

I don’t know if any of you remember but for my Play Date Cafe posts I used to do little bullet points of how I made the card, with a little twist on one of the bullet points about something that might have gone wrong, or that I found funny.  Well I haven’t done that for a while and I know Sav loves them, so this one’s just for you Sav!!

1. Stamp background using various mini ink pads to colour text circles, try to get a mix of two colours on some of them to make it look a bit more random
2. Die cut orange label in chevron pattern
3. Stamp jar using turquoise polka dot jar
4. Using pink inkpad stamp piece of card using the polka dot jar stamp and then die cut using limitless layers die
5. Die cut jar lid and frill, stamp jar lid in black and frill in pink
6. Die cut jar label, stamp turquoise outline and sentiment in centre in black
7. Punch two blue borders and attach either side of the the polka dot panel before adhering to the card base
8. Using glossy accents attach some little flowers to the jar before tying on some baker’s twine
9. Stamp jars again many times so that you have an excuse to make some more yummy jam, but remember this time it’s for sharing!

Out of interest what food do you prefer not to share?!!

Well I hope you join in on our fun colour challenge.  Our sponsor and Guest Designer this week is the lovely Tami Mayberry.  For your chance to win her fab prize pop on over to the Cafe for more information and to link your post.  If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC86, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win this week's prizes!

Our girls have come up with some lovely bright and cheery cards for you this week, pop on over to each of their blogs to see what delights they have in store for you.  You’re sure to be impressed!

DeNami Fabulous Frames Blog Hop

Happy Sunday everyone!  I hope your weather is better than ours, it's pouring rain here :o(  Oh well, it's a good excuse to get creative!

We’re so excited that you’re joining us on the DeNami Fabulous Frames Hop today.  I hope you’ve enjoyed your stops so far.

I’m sharing a quick card with you today.  Some fab stamps, nestie layering, embossing and BIG ribbon, the perfect recipe for a simple card.



I've been a fan of DeNami stamps since I first started on my card making journey.  I love their simple lines and fonts they use for their sentiment stamps.  For my card I used the fun little DeNami floral frame, Butterfly Daisy Circle, and masked out the butterflies in the centre.  I then added the little Best Wishes stamp to the centre.



Here are the details of the hop..


When: The blog hop starts on June 12th at 6 AM, PST. However, you have until June 13th 2011, 11:59pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs (to be eligible for a prize).

Why: To be inspired by beautiful creations featuring DeNami Design stamps and also the chance to win mini shopping sprees on the DeNami Design website!

Prizes: We are giving away THREE $20 gift certificates to our website! We'll be giving away one gift certificate to a random participant (DT members not eligible) and then we'll also be giving away TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop!

If you've come from the lovely Beverley Montez’ blog then you're in the right place, if not pop over to the DeNami blog and start at the beginning.

Your last stop is Laurie Willison. Her CAS style is just beautiful!  

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Happy Hopping!

Supplies:

Stamps: DeNami (as above)
Papers: Bazzill cardstock
Dies: Nestabilities Labels 14, Eyelet Circles, PTI Limitless Layers
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug A2 Combo Welcome Baby
Accessories: SU! stripey ribbon, Circular hole punch
Copics: G07, R21, R29

Color Me Creative – Colour Brunettes

Hi there

Today over at Color Me Creative we are having a new challenge which is all about brunettes. This new challenge, #20, will run until June 24th!

As you all know I’m only starting out with learning Copics.  I’m nearly at the end of my first Copic class and I’ve really enjoyed it.  What I really like about colouring hair is that there are so many styles and colours that you can use too.

Here is my card…



I used the Card Positioning System sketch below and kept it all quite simple as you can see. 


My most challenging area at the moment is skin, I seem to end up with faces that look like their foundation has gone all blotchy, like they’ve put it on with a trowel instead of a smooth finish lol.  I WILL achieve a perfect skin at the end of it, I’m determined!

 In fact I had coloured in my image and then decided to go back and add in more shading, only to go and mess up around her eyes ruining the whole image.  I tried to cut out just her face and re-attach it, but it didn’t look right, so rather than do the image again I decided to get out my Spica pen, adding in a touch of eyeshadow, and ta da, card fixed.  I love happy mistakes :o)

Don’t forget, each month  EVERY CMC Challenge Entry for that month gets the chance to win a prize and we also pick a random winner!  That winner will win a Gift Certificate to Oozak.com!
 

So we will have 1 Challenge Winner for EACH Challenge (prize listed below each challenge) AND 1 winner from all that month's challenges to win the Oozak Gift Certificate! Two ways to win, but you’ve got to be in it to win it ;o)  Pop on over to the Color Me Creative blog now and join in on the fun!

I’d also like to tell you about a few updates to our DT.  We now have a Senior DT and some new additions too…

SENIOR DT
Charlene Randall (head gal)
Brook Guinn
Anary Baumgarth
Melanie LaBelle
Marie Gamber
Ruby McGuire (that’s me!)

Also please welcome our NEW JUNIOR DT MEMBERS of the CMC Design Team!

Pat St. Martin
Jenn Cochran
Michele Spera
Sandie Dunne

Sadly Tracy Valure isn’t staying on with us, but we will be keeping in touch with her in blogging world! 

We’d love you to pop on over to welcome the new girls and to each of our DT girls and leave them a little love!

If you haven’t signed up for any classes check out the main site, Suzanne has some really good discounts right now. 

Supplies: 

Stamps: Greeting Farm ‘Cheeky Shooter’, PTI ‘Say It With Style’
Dies: Scallop and Circle Nesties
Papers: October Afternoon ‘Modern Homemaker’, Bazzill Cardstock, Cryogen Cardstock
Accessories: Red ribbon, The Twinery red twine, corner rounder, Signo Uniball, Spica Turquoise
Copics:

PDCC 85

Hi there. 

I’m sorry I’ve not been around much this week, my internet and phone lines have been on and off, mostly on when I don’t need them and off when I do!!  It was a bit hit and miss whether I’d make this week’s Play Date Cafe colour challenge.  I still haven't got a phone line/internet so I'm trying to pick up a connection on a wireless stick, but I'm not getting very good service, it keeps cutting out.  Even my photograph isn't great.  If I can get a better picture I will try and update it.

As you may be aware I did my last scheduled colour challenge last week and Jaclyn Miller is going to be doing them going forward.  Oh boy do we have some beautiful colour stories lined up for you!  With Jaclyn’s graphic design background she is going to blow you away with her colours, they are beautiful.

I seem to be in an all or nothing stage, I either have dozens of ideas or none!  I coloured my little cake image, but it didn’t seem to matter what papers I tried it just wasn’t working.  I then decided to strip it all right back and leave it as simple as possible.  I offset the sentiment to balance the wonky cake.  I’m still not keen on it really, but sometimes you just have to let it go!  Something I’m not so good at lol.

I'm sorry the information I'm supplying is limited, but I'm working on an internet connection that's a bit shaky so want to just get as much posted as I can before it dies again!  For more information on this week’s prize, our sponsors and the wonderful samples from my teamies etc pop on over to The Play Date Cafe.

I hope you play along with us. I’m looking forward to getting lots of inspiration from you all, I need all the help I can get right now!

Supplies:
Stamps: Victoria Case for SCACD ‘Celebrate’, Lawn Fawn ‘Sophie’s Sentiments’
Papers: Bazzill Cardstock
Copics: See below, but just ignore that one of them is upside down, now that kinda thing drives me c-r-azy!
Accessories: Liquid Pearls 

Etsy Inspired Challenge #140 – Peaden Scott Designs

Hi everyone

It’s time for a bit of Etsy shop inspiration over at Etsy Inspired and this week our featured shop is Peaden Scott Designs, who make fun 3d cards, who are offering two free cards of the winner’s choice.  I made this card for a friend of mine that gave me a couple of fantastic stamps that I just love.  It's a little late but I wanted to take my time over it and this is the first chance I've had.  I hope she likes it.

 



Today I was inspired by the pretty butterfly card, well I didn’t need an excuse to pull out my fab butterfly stamp again, did I?!   Here are some of their fun designs..



I just cannot get enough of these Skipping Stone Design butterflies, seriously… I could just sit and colour them in every colour of the rainbow lol.

I am slowly working through my Copic wish list, trying to get as many colours as I can.  I need to get a mortgage to buy them all I think, they are SO addictive!

I'm going to enter this card into the CPS sketch challenge using this sketch.  For once I pretty much stayed to the sketch, unusual for me I know!

We are sponsored this week by Through the Craftroom Door publication who are offering a fab one year online subscription!

Don’t forget to pop on by to our Etsy Inspired DT too to see some more projects inspired by this week’s shop.

Angi Barrs

Carole Chesser

De Swanick

Emily Branch

Jackie Bowman

Joy Stagg

Kerry Angeles

Ellie Augustin

Ruby McGuire (that's me!)

Savannah O'Gwynn

Sherry Campbell

Virginia Lu

If posting to an online gallery please use EIC#140.

I look forward to popping by your blogs to see what you’ve created!  This shop really gives you lots of scope to create some fab projects.

Supplies:
Stamps: Skipping Stone Designs ‘Healing Wings’, Waltzingmouse ‘Fancy Phrases’
Papers: Stella Rose, Bazzill & plain cream cardstock
Accessories: SU! Grosgrain ribbon, Cuttlebug ‘Moroccan Screen’ embossing folder, Prima e.Pearls