Happy New Year

It seems such a long time since I posted on here. Just want to wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year with lots of fun, laughter and, of course, crafting. I'm so looking forward to 2016- I was very lucky to receive tickets for some awesome events for Christmas, so I will be off to London soon for the first one of those, to see WarHorse in the West End, before it closes in March.
Anyway, back to today, here are a couple of New Year cards I've made for the Anything Goes challenge at The Mail Room. The inspiration for both came from some sheets of A4 patterned paper which I was given a few years ago! (New Year Resolution- stop hoarding paper!). I used my nesting star dies and layered up the large stars

In both cases I used part of a sentiment from the set Happy Hour (the only new year greeting I could find) and stamped in Versamark and embossed in silver. On the second card I was brave enough to do this direct on the large star.

That's all really. Not very complicated, the paper is the main POI and it is glittery, adding texture and bling but in a masculine way. Yesterday, when I made them the white one was my favourite, today, looking at these photos I like the blue one best!

Hope 2016 is amazing for you!

Rock Out in Neon

I missed the last challenge at The Male Room. I was trying to get all the posts ready to schedule whilst I was away and that one slipped through the net. So, I have diligently worked on my masculine card for this next challenge.

Of course, on any DT you know what's coming up weeks, or even months in advance, so when I saw Visible Ink had some stamps on sale a couple of weeks ago I got the rocking guitarist image with this challenge in mind. I used a green background paper which I matched to the neon green in my post-it note block and then I had a lightbulb moment- you know, when some stroke of genius comes to you from who knows where! I would use the actual post-it for an upbeat, young and trendy touch.

I hope you think it works, I'm so pleased with this card. Young teenage males seem very hard to design for. The Spider-Man card I made a few challenges ago for TMR started me thinking, bold, bright colours seem to work, and punchy sentiments. 

I added the 'on your birthday' bit by stamping part of a sentiment from the Happy Hour set. The image is embossed to add some texture and I have fixed the post it note more firmly with double sided tape.

I'm going to link up my card to the Anything Goes challenge at Seize The Birthday  and, with my tongue firmly in my cheek, to the music theme challenge at Cas-Ual Fridays too.

Mistletoe and Wine

Remember the Christmas song by Cliff Richard, Mistletoe and Wine? well, that's the inspiration for our cards at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, chosen by Gill, hop over to her blog and she will explain why.
For my card I combined two mistletoe images in a square design, keeping the card monochromatic by using lucky Limeade for all the stamping. One image is from Easy Events stamp set, the other is a freebie. I used a darker shade of green for the mat, and scored a frame around the two white squares. I added pearl berries to one of the sprigs.

"So, where is the wine?"  I hear you say. 

Well, I left it for the inside of my card. Using the same ink and a masking technique I stamped a couple of glasses and a sentiment from the set Happy Hour.

Do have a look at the cards on the challenge blog, and now we are into August, remember Christmas is only four months away. better get started on those cards!

Witches' Brew

I love having the chance to blog hop around, being on a couple of DTs helps a lot as I really do get around a bit (in the nicest possible way).  It was this that led to my discovery of a challenge blog that really pushed my buttons Cup Cake Inspirations- using cupcakes to inspire cards? It was like it was made for me.  I browsed through some of their previous challenges and the cupcakes are incredible! Look at these for this week's challenge

I have chosen to use the colour combination for my inspiration.  Halloween doesn't really do it for me - don't think I've ever made a Halloween card in my life! We don't send them here in the UK, even trick or treating (which my kids do) is frowned upon by many.  But, who could fail to enjoy these cakes, and that lovely chartreuse colour got me thinking of cocktails.  Here's my (almost) one layer card

I used a set  from Stampin' Up called Happy Hour to create my image  The 'bubbles' were inspired from the sprinkles on the cake.It was going to be one layer but then a bit of a slip meant that I had to mat the sentiment - I'm sure we've all been there! .Hope I'm not too wide of the mark of the DT expectations. I look forward to many more cupcake inspired cards! As I used my promarkers to colour the cocktails  I'm also going to enter the Make your Mark challenge at Addicted To Stamps and More

Seeing double?

As we have 5 Thursdays in May, and this one being the fifth we have a special challenge for you from CAS -Colours and Sketches which we call 'the double'.  This time you get a sketch and the colours combined. Here they are:

I think I chose quite a difficult stamp set for this challenge and it didn't quite turn out as I had hoped but here is my card - another one for Christmas!

 I've used mirri card, which is almost the same shade as Real Red, for the centre circle mat. I think the images could have been placed better, as only the top right one is in the correct place - the others are too far over towards the centre. My only excuse is that I really didn't have time to make another one, as I'm actually away on holiday right now! Don't worry I will be visiting your blogs and commenting as soon as I get back and I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with 'The Double'.

Christmas Cheer

Here's another card using my latest stamp set from SU - Happy Hour.  This time I've used it to make a Christmas card for the sketch challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown. It is great when you find a stamp set which can be used for lots of different occasions.

For my card I've used the traditional holiday colour combo

For my scalloped edge I decided to cut around the design in the DP, and it's made a very pretty edge, I think. I have popped up the red drinks,and added a little touch of shading with a Warm Grey Promarker at the base of the glasses to give some dimension to my card.  

Go and see what the other DT members have made with this sketch, there's bound to be something  which catches your eye ;)

The Drinks are on Me!

April's here! Blue skies and sunshine I hope (and not too many showers!). This is a card which I have made for the colour challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches, using my newest stamp set, Happy Hour

Aren't these colours gorgeous? Don't worry if you don't have the exact SU shade, use the closest you have, like me!

I think my Bashful Blue got a bit overpowered - a bit like me if I drank all this! I've made cocktails using each colour- a Screwdriver, a Strawberry daiquiri and a blue lagoon, matted and layered onto each colour too and finished off with a  Raspberry Ripple chevron DP.
Do go over to the blog to see the creations from the DT girls -they're fantastic.