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

Flower Power!

Hooray it's the weekend!  I hope you've got a good one planned.  We are having a lazy one,  catching up with people but overall just relaxing, what weekends are all about.  I'm hoping to get some more practice in with my Copics and some time in my studio too if I can.

What do I have for you today?  Well, Wendy over at The Stamp Attic very kindly let me loose play with lots of Hero Arts goodies.  How lucky am I?!  You all know how much I love my flowers!

I ran a workshop there a few weeks ago and thought I would share one of the cards that we made.  This is a mini card, 11.5cm x 9cm.  Using Bazzill cardstock we cut a chocolate card base and attached it to the base card.  I rounded mine here, but in the workshop we left it just cut as a rectangle. 


We used Ranger Distress Inks (Mustard Seed, Fired Brick, Vintage Photo) and Versamark with Stampendous Detail Embossing Powder (White) and Hero Arts Layered Flowers stamps using a watercolour effect to create the background.

I really love creating background papers, it’s so rewarding.  The little leaf makes a fantastic fill in too where it’s solid and small enough to squeeze into gaps. When I first bought distress inks I only used them for distressing and ageing edges, I hadn’t realised all of the different things you could do with them, they are SO versatile.  I will be sharing another card with you soon using them as watercolour paints, fun!

We heat embossed the flower on different coloured Bazzill to create a layered flower, using pop dots for dimension and adding a little ePearl in the flower to finish.  Before attaching the main panel we tied on a bit of chocolate twine.

Finally a stamped sentiment using the Hero Arts Find Joy set finished everything off.  I love the simplicity of just stamping a sentiment onto a piece of white card,  sometimes it just doesn’t have to be fancy, does it?!  This sentiment set is fab with all of the go to sentiments and this ‘Thank You’ is one I know I will use over and over again!   

I am running another workshop there on Monday 13th June, it would be great to see you there!

I’m back tomorrow with another Etsy Inspired challenge.

PDCC 84

Phew, where has that week gone?  I can’t believe it’s been a whole week since Sarah’s little blog hop for the  Play Date Cafe!  My Auntie over in Ireland reckons our one month is now just about two weeks in time, I think she might be right.  Or is it that I’m just getting older lol

For today’s Play Date Cafe challenge card I decided to try my hand at a bit more masking.  I don’t know about you but I always find this technique so magical.  I expect it to go wrong and I’m always really pleased when I lift off that little post it note to reveal my perfectly stamped image lol.

I used Lawn Fawn’s new set, 'Blissful Botanicals' for the flowers and leaves that I stamped and coloured with Copics onto a Labels 9 Nestie.  I actually was a bit lazy with my Nestie so I didn’t cut it out before stamping lol. I simply drew a pencil line around the inside and outside of the die so that I knew where to stamp.  This also helped me to be able to line it up properly before cutting.  All I needed to do was  temporarily stick the nestie before cutting it out when I could be bothered to get up lol.

The sentiment was stamped using the new ‘Cruising Through Life’ set.  I have a friend that has just lost 5 stone so I wanted to send her something simple to celebrate with her, I thought this sentiment was perfect, she is nearly at her target weight now. 
I found the card a bit too white against the Cryogen cardstock I’d used to colour on so I decided to distress the card base with some Ranger Milled Lavender.  I then added a Nestie frame and simply attached the floral panel on top using dimensionals.

Our sponsors this week are Mark's Finest Papers.  For your chance to win their 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 PDCC84, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win this week's prizes!

Don’t forget to all of my teamies’ blogs too, they’ve done a terrific job again this week!

A card and some overdue blog awards–oops!

Happy Wednesday!

This is a long post which includes a card, some awards and some not so interesting things about me that I need to blog about as part of my awards!

If you’re looking for my card and you haven’t done so already pop on over to The Stamp Attic, I’ve posted about this card there.  I’d love to know what you think. I’m also going to enter this card into the Sketches in Thyme challenge which is to use any sketch you like.  I was inspired by an old CPS sketch from January of this year.  This is my loose interpretation of the sketch.



This is the sketch..



I flipped the sketch onto its side and used the circle as inspiration for the centre flower and the curved corners on the sketch for the panel and the base card.

So … It is with red cheeks and a bit of embarassment that I finally write about some blog awards that were very kindly given to me.  They are so overdue I’m not sure if the people that gave them to me are still talking to me lol.  I keep meaning to post them, but it just never quite happens!

So firstly thanks goes to Marie Gamber for this award..


With this award I’m supposed to tell you five things about me.  Hmmm, what should I share? 

I can touch type very fast without looking, which REALLY freaks some people out lol

I never go a day without nailvarnish, or make-up, come to think of it.  It’s not that I’m vain, it’s just that’s who I am. I like to add colour to my life, as I’m sure you’ve noticed with my cards lol

I love learning the nitty gritty about people, I don’t mean in a gossipy way.  In fact I’m not interested in gossip, I like to really get to know a person and share their troubles and experiences.  I think everyone is just doing the best they can in life but it always helps to understand a bit more about where they are coming from

I love the computer game ‘Chuzzle’, which is where you have to match three little fluffy characters in a row so that they pop!  This is the online description.. Googly-eyed little balls of fur that giggle, squeak, and sneeze as you push them across the board! Once you start popping Chuzzles you might not be able to stop!

They look like this…


Finally, I was once held hostage in a doctor’s surgery, but that’s a story for another day lol.

I also received this award from Marie which has no requirements attached to it.  It’s just simply an award to share with others that I have met during my time blogging.



Finally I got this lovely award from Tracey. 



Like me Tracey is learning to colour with Copics and I met her through my first class over at Color Me Creative.  I’m sure she would agree with me that doing the course is so fun and you really do learn much quicker where you’re doing more and more practice.

I know I’m supposed to list lots of other bloggers that inspire me but I just wouldn’t know where to start so I want to give all of these awards to my followers and RSS readers, because being in the blogging world always astounds me.  The friendships that you can make just through this hobby is incredible.  It never ceases to amaze me that while I’m sleeping I get comments from the States (comments at all in fact!!) and that some people (you know who I mean) are already on the next day due to the time differences (boy that fries my little brain!) 

I think as women we all support each other so much through our commenting.  Ian is part of a wargaming blogging group and the people that comment on his painting and terrain building are so critical.  His work is so good though. He sees it as constructive criticism.  I think if I got some of those ‘constructive’ comments I’d be packing up my papers and stamps and selling them off on eBay, in between using a whole box of tissues to dry my tear soaked eyes!! 

I think this support network makes the whole blogging experience so worthwhile, it keeps us creating and looking for new ideas, in turn developing who we are and what we create.  I just LOVE it!

So thank you ladies for my lovely blog awards, I just hope you realise that I truly appreciate them and I’m sorry it’s taken me so very long to post about them!  Hope I’m forgiven!