Blooming Summer

As it is school holiday here in the UK I had time to sit and craft this morning to bring you my card for the new colour challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches, a rare luxury these days. I also went to a new catalogue launch for Stampin Up yesterday evening and can't wait to get my hands on some of the new colours and stamp sets, so I've been having a crafty few days, which all started on Tuesday with a trip to my regular craft club. We were using acrylic blocks to produce water colour effects and so I have incorporated that into today's card.

Can you see the colours? Aren't they lovely and summery?

I used an old set, I think it was saleABration, and I think it's called Bloomin' Marvellous to stamp the flower and the bird (can you see his iridescent eye?)The sentiment is, of course, from Happiest Birthday wishes. I have ordered some new sentiment stamps...hurray you say!

Finally, I decorated the inside of the card, unusual for me, with some DP and then cut a white mat to allow a message to be written and finished with another tiny bird stamp.

Grungy Flowers

I'm back! This is my first post since I went off on holiday, the five of us (hubby and three offspring- can't really say children anymore!) were lucky enough to be able to get away for a three week whirlwind tour of Florida, finishing with some theme park fun days out in Orlando. It was a ball! Now I've had a good break I really enjoyed an afternoon of crafting earlier this week when everyone went back to school, work, university etc. I made three cards but I've just got one to share this morning, it's for the sketch challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches

I had a little extra help too, from the colour palette at The Colour Throwdown

I used a stamp set from Visible Image for this one. If you know me you'll know I don't do floral very often or very well, so this stamp set caught my eye as a bit grungy and alternative. See what you think...

A purist might say that a CAS card is no place for embellishments and, on the whole I agree, but these little brads from Stampin Up just matched so perfectly and I thought they added something to the card, rather than detract from it. I just love the little Kraft coloured butterfly! There is plenty of white space too 

I also used Work Of Art to stamp the 'buds' beneath the brads. The sentiment is from Blooming Marvellous and I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to get it in just the right position. 

I used Kraft card as a mat and added a simple scored frame. I hope that, like me, you find some time to craft in this coming week and I look forward to seeing those sketch inspired cards over at the challenge blog.

Third Time Lucky

This is a tale of three cards. I got up early to make my DT card for the new colour challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. I needed to make a few cards in advance because I will be off on holiday again next week, so I wrote the challenges down and started selecting stamp sets, inks, card stock and so on. I finished the first card quite easily, ideas were flowing and I made all the ones I needed by lunch time. Then I went to upload my card on the blog and realised I'd got the colour palette wrong! Instead of

..I had used Blushing Bride, So Saffron and ....green! Oh no! So I got all my stuff out again (I don't have a craft room, just a dining table) after dinner and made another card. Correct colours, all was fine and here it is...

I used the small flower stamp from Bloomin' Marvellous and an embossing folder I've had for years. I used tone on tone stamping and added a small embellishment in the centre of the flowers. It wasn't until I took the photo that I noticed a glue smear on the top- disaster for a clean and simple card. 

My third and final offering is this one, using Mosaic Madness, Wisteria Wonder card stock, a pale pink card blank which will pass for Blushing Bride and the embossed sentiment cut out of the previous card (waste not, want not, as they say)

I actually like this card the best, I think it makes the most of these soft, pastel shades. I do hope you have more success than I did when you make your card

Tumbling Wallflowers

Quick post from me today to share with you my double challenge card for CAS Colours & Sketches. A double challenge means that we give you the sketch AND the colours to use. It always amazes me how many different cards we see in the gallery on these weeks, given that the style, colour and layout must be the same.

I saw a card in one of the challenges which had been stamped before embossing, and I thought I would give that a go. I used a stamp set called Blooming Marvelous and a brick wall background embossing folder.

After embossing I added a few more fussy cut blooms and a sentiment from the same set.. I mattered onto more white card before popping the panel up on foam pads.

In the photo below you can see the layers better.

I was hoping to create the look of flowers tumbling down a wall and got my inspiration from a photo I found on the Internet. These flowers create a splash of colour on an otherwise bare wall. 

Faux Frame Winter Card

Today there is a brand new technique challenge over at Technique Time Tuesday and it's a real good one! Faux frame is a sponging technique which uses nesting die shapes to create the illusion of a frame.  There's a full 'how to' tutorial on the blog and I think it would be a great technique for Christmas cards, if you still have lots of those to make.
For my DT sample I have made a wintery theme card, using a colour palette of Soft Suede, Sky Blue and Very Vanilla.

The stamp set is Simply Sketched. I stamped the foliage and added liquid pearls to the berries. I have used the blue ribbon as borders as well as adding the bow and the bird image from the stamp set was supplemented by some grasses from the Wetlands stamps. The sentiment is from Blooming Marvellous. If I glittered this up I guess I could use it for a Christmas card (as it is a happy day!) but I think I'm going to use it for a winter birthday card.
Here is a close up of the 'frame'

I see there is a frame challenge for November at Heck Of A Challenge - In The Frame, so I will enter my card over there,
Do have a look at the other creations from the DT at TTT, and check out the tutorial. I look forward to seeing everyone's beautiful faux frame projects.