We herd it's your birthday!

Entering this birthday card in: Seize the Birthday Challenge Blog.  The theme this week is 'anything goes'.


I used Mama Elephant Stamps (Brush strokes; Lunar Animals); Lawn Fawn stamps (Party Animals); Stampin up stamps (Endless Birthday Wishes) and MFT die (Fence).

I love a good pun and thought this was appropriate for the farm animals!

Thanks for looking!

Christmas card no.2

Here is my second card for the Friday Mashup challenge.  I used the same image but this time I had a go at the 'delft tile' technique and really like the effect.  I wasn't happy with the way my sponging turned out on my scrap pieces so I didn't sponge around the edges of each tile.  I like the way it turned out and the tile technique adds an extra bit of interest to the image.

I'm entering this in the Friday Mashup! challenge.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Supplies: 

Stamps:  Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz (Santa); Amy R Stamps (sentiment)

Tis the season to be jolly...

Well, it's not really Christmas time but I love this stamp so much and really wanted to use it.  Why not?!  I'm envious of those people who are clever enough to make Christmas cards all throughout the year so that they are totally organised with many handmade cards by December...well, now I have one card ready at least!  It's a good start.

I loved this sketch from Friday Mashup! and thought that the Santa stamp would work really well.  The stamp is a lot larger than the circle, but I just wanted Santa's face to fit. 

The Challenge this week at Friday Mashup! is:



The 'mashup' is to use the 'delft tile technique' on your card.  I haven't used the technique on this card but I am about to head off and have a go.  I've never done it before and I love the way it looks.  Hopefully I'll have another card to share soon using the technique.

I followed the sketch pretty closely, just changed the placement of the circle and sentiment.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz (Santa); Kaisercraft (sentiment) stamp; Cre8tiv Border Icons (hearts)
Brad: Kaisercraft

Feeling Icky? Get well card

Hi there!

I wanted to make a card using the prompt from AAA cards.  I liked the window block pattern and immediately thought of using my new little bird stamps.  I could picture them peeking out from each of the windows.  Very cute.  I thought I was so clever thinking up that idea all by myself.   Anyway, I was just about to make my card this morning when I saw that someone else has beaten me to the idea!  And it looks fantastic!!  (Love your card, Deepti!)

So I had to have a little rethink and decided to use my monster stamps.  I paper pieced each monster and coloured in their eyes with a white marker.  I thought the red, dotted background looked a bit like chicken pox, so would fit in nicely with a get well card.

This was the prompt from AAA Cards:

and here is my interpretation...

 

I'm also entering this in The Friday Mashup!  The challenge this week is to use background stamps. 

 

 

Thanks for looking!

Clean and simple flower card

Here is a card I have made for The Friday Mashup! card challenge.  The challenge this week was to use a watercolour wash and to keep your card 'clean and simple'. 

I rarely do clean and simple cards even though I love the look of them.  Must make them more often!  This would be an easy card to make multiple copies and give them away as a gift.

Supplies:
Flower die: MFT dies
Sentiment stamp:  Kaisercraft

Rainbow birthday card

I made this birthday card for a lovely girl who I work with.  She is celebrating her birthday at the end of the week.  She is very arty and creative so I thought that she would like the painted look of this rainbow card.  Bright colours always make me feel happy!

I'm going to enter this card into three challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks:  Challenge - Stripes
The Paper Players:  Challenge - #202 Sandy's Tic Tac Toe Challenge. 
Seize the Birthday:  Challenge - Anything Goes


I am going horizontally from the top and using - twine, a shade of blue, and the card is for a birthday.


Supplies:
Stamps:  Kaisercraft (bird cages); Amy R (sentiments); Hero Arts (bird)
Inks:  Distress inks

Super simple Christimas cards

Some more super quick Christmas cards.  Elves and Mrs Claus are from the Paper Doll Dress ups cricut cartridge.  Faces are Peachy Keen stamps (love them!)  Simple patterned paper with some stitching around the edges, whack on an Amy R sentiment and I'm done!  I'm all for quick and easy this Christmas, that's for sure!

Thanks for looking!

Friend card

I made card for my girlfriend who has two sick kids at the moment - she is housebound and ready to tear her hair out I think! 
I made the tag using Tim Holtz distress inks - the wrinkle free technique.  I love how these colours turned out on the tag.  I then stamped some images on the top.  The sentiments are Amy R stamps, the images are Basic grey stamps.

I am entering this card in the Perfect Sentiments challenge - Challenge/Twist: create a card to recognize that special someone. Be sure to include a sentiment on the front.

Thanks for looking!

A couple more Christmas cards...

Another couple of super-quick and easy Christmas cards.  I am sticking with basic, flat designs for my Christmas cards this year, just making it easy to post.

For the first card I cut out a star on my cricut machine (I think I used Birthday bash cartridge).  I used the star on a separate card.  I used the negative space for this card.  First I flipped it over and laid it on top of my card base, so that I could align my stamps and make sure they were in the right spot.  Then I stamped the two Amy R sentiments, then attached the paper with pop dots.  I think it's ridiculously simple but effective - just how I like it when I'm on the verge of December and haven't started my Christmas cards yet!  This would be a good one to mass produce, especially when I could also make cards with the stars that I cut out.

The second card is also very simple.  I cut out Santa from the Paper Doll Dress ups cartridge and attached him to the Kaiser patterned paper.  This paper was perfect as I felt I didn't need to do any other embellishing at all!  I stamped a 'Ho ho ho' sentiment (another Amy R stamp set) and glued a pom pom to his head and I was done.  Too easy!

I am entering my star card into a couple of challenges:
Scrap Creations - This weeks challenge is "Merry Christmas"! We want to see what you are creating for the holidays.
The Paper Girls Challenge - our challenge this time is for you to create something Christmas or winter themed!

I've never played along with these two challenges before, so I'm looking forward to browsing all the entries and getting some more Christmas card inspiration!

Thanks for looking!

Some distressing with my boys!

My boys (aged 5 1/2 and 3 1/2) have been eagerly watching me use my new distress inks and were not too happy that were not allowed to touch them under any circumstances!  In my defence, I share almost all of my scrapping supplies with my boys and am happy to sit with them and help them make their special creations and cards.  They have their own inks to use and free access to my stamps, they have plenty of lovely scrapbooking paper (my leftovers).  I decided that the cost of distress inks was too much for me to share with them...but I had a weak moment yesterday and decided that under careful supervision, they could have a go at the wrinkle-free distress ink style.  And boy did they love it!

They chose two colours, spritzed with water (so much fun!), and smooshed their tag in the ink.  They oohed and aahed when they lifted their tags up and saw the results, then had fun dipping the tag back in the leftover bits of ink...anyway, they did a super job and I thought I'd share their little creations with you.  Two of these are heading to their Gran for her birthday in a couple of weeks.

Pretty, aren't they!

Thanks for looking!

A Christmas card

A super-simple Christmas card made using the EveryDay Paper Doll cricut cartridge and Amy R sentiment stamps.

I'm entering this in a couple of challenges:
CWC #114: Anything Holiday with Red and/or Green
Paper Playtime:  Anything Goes

Thanks for looking!

Distress ink cards

 

Still playing around with my distress inks when I get the chance.  I got my new pink and blue distress inks (worn lipstick and broken china) so they are adding a nice touch of colour to my cards now.  This card was inspired by a Christmas card I saw and loved on this blog. 

The background was made by sponging on distress inks then spritzing with water.  Once dry I stamped a sheet music stamp in a light yellow/gold colour, then stamped some swirls in sepia ink.  Finally I stamped the butterflies and sentiment in black Staz-on ink.

 

 This second card was inspired by one I saw and loved on Pinterest.  A link to the original card can be seen here.  I copied the colours and stripes of the distress inks.  I then stamped the flower stamp in black ink.  I restamped the flower sections on a scrap of paper that I had covered in 'barn door' distress ink, then fussy cut the flowers and stuck them on the card.  The largest flower was stuck up with pop dots to add some dimension.

Thanks for looking!

Mucking around with my stamps

So I have been inspired lately by all things Pinterest.  In particular I have been enjoying seeing some 'clean and simple' cards and cards with stamping on them.  I have limited stamps at home, I really must make a few more purchases because I am really loving all these cards that I am seeing.

So it is this whole 'clean and simple' thing that has got me intrigued.  I love all the cards on the clean and simple stamping blog, they are so beautiful.  I also love to look at the Less is More blog, which also has beautiful cards.  They look so simple, so quick and easy...but they're not that easy to make!  There is a real art to making a clean and simple card look so good.  It's all about the white space, the clever design, the particular choice of stamp or embellishment...anyway, this is all a big learning curve for me and I hope to improve in this area over time.  For now, I think I will stick to being inspired by the cards I love!

So here are a couple of cards that I have been making today, mucking around with ideas that I have found online and seeing how they turn out.  Some are kind of clean and simple, others not so much, but all of them were quick and easy, that's the main thing for me!

 This card was pretty easy but I'm happy with how it turned out.  This photo is a bit dark, the actual card looks nicer in person (of course!)  I simple stamped my flowers, stems, leaves and sentiment and ran the white piece of card through my cuttlebug with my swirly embossing folder.  I tied a piece of sheer ribbon around it, then attached the white piece to a slightly larger pink piece of cardstock, then stuck that to my white card base.  Voila - we have a card!
I got the idea for this card by watching a great tutorial on Stamp TV.  They used different stamps but the end result is pretty much the same.  Great tutorials on this site. A direct link to the tutorial I watched is here. 

How cute is this twine!  I just purchased five spools of twine from Whimsy Farm Twine, an Australian owned and run business.  They sell 100 metre spools of twine for $5!  Bargain!  No, I'm not paid to promote them, I found an ad for their business in a cardmaking magazine.  I just thought I'd give them a shout-out because their service was very friendly, their delivery was super fast (and postage was very reasonable), and their product is fab!  Oh yeah, and did I mention they're Australian?!!  Looking forward to using all my other coloured twine on later projects.  (Oh and they also make tri-coloured twine).

Another simple, stamped card, run through the cuttlebug and attached to a card base.  So simple.  Love this embossing folder.  This card was inspired by a card I saw on...wait for it...Pinterest!  I found the card that inspired me, but unfortunately when I clicked on the link it just took me to flicker, not to the actual card, so I don't have a link to share for the original card and I have no way of finding the original person's blog.  I can tell you though that their card had butterflies, embossing and a sentiment. 

Stamps: Basic Grey
Embossing folder:  Tim Holtz
Sentiment stamp:  Amy R Designs
Twine:  Whimsy Farm twine

Thanks for looking!