UKS ATC Swap June 2012

Royalty is the theme for June's ATC swap on UK Stampers. I decided to go for a Royal family - King, Queen & Prince.
King - This is pretty simple, the BG is made with a mask (shattered) and Impress chartreuse & spring green & shabby shutters DI. I moved the mask round for each ink to give that effect. The background has game on stamped on it and the mini playing card was from a set I got in a cracker many years ago.
Queen - I stamped the Paper Artsy image onto some Crafty Individuals paper, stamped the face on white card and added it. There are 3 small charms hanging from the twine which were cut with Cuttlebug dies and embossed to add texture.
Prince - I've had this grab bag frog stamp for a while and thought it was very appropriate for the theme. It's on Crafty Individuals patterned paper and the text is by Scottish Border stamps. The kiss stamp is by Non Sequitur and I drew the crown myself (that's about the extent of my drawing ability!)

Gothic Arches - Carnevale

This fortnight's Gothic Arches challenge theme is Carnevale. I used some Crafty Individuals patterned paper (conveniently called Travels in Italy) as a BG taking care to ensure that the beautiful mask image was visible. The mask stamp is by Simply Stamps, embossed in gold, painted with Twinkling H2Os and embellished with gems. This was stuck onto a marabou feather. I die-cut a TH flourish and punched some photo corners from gold card. I've left it fairly plain as I wanted the gorgeous paper to show through.

LIM 69 - shaped card

It's hard getting a good pic of this because of the metallic card I've used for the watering can. This week's Less Is More challenge is to use anything but a square or rectangular card. I found this template on the Waltzing Mouse Stamps site and was initially going to cover the top with flowers for my mother-in-law but that would not have been very CAS at all so I've gone for a simpler approach. It's a TH flower and a Cuttlebug leaf die which I've edged with Impress chartreuse and victorian velvet DI. I used a Cuttlebug embossing border along the bottom and added a Paula Pascual stamped oval and text. Thanks for all your comments, it was hard to get around to many of you last week but I will do my best this week.

Tim Holtz Tags - May

This month's tag on Tim Holtz's blog has been another exercise in inventiveness. I had none of the required elements so have had to wing it. I stamped the lady image (from a grab bag so I have no idea where it's from), added the fake cross stitches and covered them with an old paper pattern I found at the charity shop. It had a yellowed, vintage tinge to it already but I highlighted it with frayed burlap DI. I found the cotton reel images online and stuck one onto a flattened bottlecap with a covering of glossy accents. The dummy is a template from Lisa Vollrath's Go Make Something site embossed with a houndstooth folder and the stand has been fashioned from part of TH's hanging sign die. I made the hanger out of wire and used a Cuttlebug embossing border for the tape measure which I highlighted with black ink. The cotton reel is hand drawn with kitchen twine wrapped around and I made a little square box to mount it on to give it some dimension. I don't have a melt pot so I rubbed pigment ink onto the flowers and dunked them into UTEE several times. Some red & black ribbon finished off the tag. Roll on June!

UKS Postcard Swap May

This is a very last minute entry for this month's postcard swap on UK Stampers. The theme is party and I've spent all month thinking about party politics, party invitations but not really coming up with something I can put down on a postcard. The different elements on this are from various flyers that have come through the door this past week. I put glossy accents on the bus windows and spritzed various red and blue sprays over the background. The background stamps are from Scottish Borders. I've stuck it all down with PVA and  hope it all goes safely through the post.

UKS Twinchie Swap June 2012

I'm trying to get ahead with my swaps and when Stitcharama-girl proposed a 3 twinchie swap entitled little red heart I had an idea of what I wanted to do. I made a background of scraps of Crafty Individuals background papers. I love these papers and this technique is perfect for tiny scraps. I was shown this technique by Paula Pascual who now designs for Sizzix. I stamped on some scraps of patterned paper and some plain card in a co-ordinating colour & then cut all the scraps to make sure they all had 90 degree corners. I ran a glue stick over a piece of card and stuck the pieces on randomly but making sure that each piece butted up against the previous one. When the card was covered I ran it through the Cuttlebug with the Madison embossing folder. I highlighted the embossing with shabby shutters DI, used frayed burlap for the edges and used my gold Krylon to make a few splatters. I stamped the Crafty Individual house with sepia Archival ink and coloured the windows. I cut a heart using a nesties die and added glossy accents. The text was stamped with my rotary stamp.

LIM 68 - Baby or Child Card

Thanks for all the kind comments last week. This week's challenge on the Less Is More blog is to make a card suitable for a baby or child - a theme that didn't really have me jumping for joy (hence the tardiness of my post this week). I very seldom need to make a baby card these days and am not really into cute stamps so after much scratching of my head I came up with this. When I used to make kid's cards I found the best way was to put the child's name on the front or to use an excruciatingly bad pun (snappy birthday with a crocodile was another favourite). I used tumbled glass & broken china DI for the background and a Komodo stamp for the seaweed. The fish are a Cuttlebug die. I added some glossy accent air bubbles and a computer generated sentiment. The aperture has been covered with acetate to give a goldfish bowl appearance.

Gothic Arches - Black & White

Here is my entry for this fortnight's challenge on the Gothic Arches blog. The theme is black & white. I was a bit stuck for ideas as to what to do and I wasn't sure if the whole arch had to use only black & white (as you can see I decided to give it 2 spots of green). I used the TH umbrella man stamp and a BG of circles from an Inkadinkadoo plate (although I have various grey ink pads for some reason I decided to use my Versafine onyx black for this, stamping the first impression on scrap paper). The flowers are from a TPC Studio borders set and the text is from Fiskars. I finished with some metallic green brads.

LIM 67

Mandi & Chrissie on the Less Is More blog have asked for a one layer card with 3 stamps this week. So here is my entry on marbled card:
1 Frame stamp inked with Brilliance crimson
2 Judikins India cube stamp inked with Brilliance starlite black
3 My own text stamp inked with crimson.
I roughly coloured the image with Faber-Castell watercolour pencils. I think I've got enough white space this week don't you?

LIM 2nd entry

Another entry for the Less Is More challenge. This is more of a sunny yellow and I think looks a lot warmer. The birdcage die is by Marianne as are the flowers and the leaves. The patterned paper is Roam by K&Co and the birds are from  a Crafty Individual set. Some green pearl brads finished the flowers off.

Less Is More 66

Thanks to everyone who left a comment on my entry last week, I don't think I've ever had as many comments. This week's colour challenge on Less Is More is to use yellow as a focal point. The card is brighter in real life but I haven't managed to get the scan right. The chrysanthemum stamp is by Stampendous and it's been stamped with Versafine onyx black & coloured with coloursoft pencils. I hope the week brings you sunshine not showers.

UKS Twinchie Swap May 2012

Well it's May Day and it looks like the April showers are continuing here. I think my garden has been watered enough now may I please have some dry weather so I can get out & do some planting?

On UK Stampers Stitcharama Girl has proposed a twinchie swap with a theme of lettering. I had an idea in my mind and some time last night so I made these. I know that the twinchies will be split up so the fact that they spell 'ART' is meaningless but hey ho I felt like doing it, I think each square is able to stand on its own. The BG is Impress lemon yellow & peony purple (loving this colour at the moment). I stamped a Hampton Arts crackle in Stazon  stone grey and used peony purple again for the text which is a PA stamp. It has different words in various fonts with the last line reading 'no more words'. The doily type corners are part of a round Spellbinder set that I bought last summer in The States for $5! I cut the letters from various alphabet sets - CB curls & swirls and Sizzix mango tango & retro metro (who thinks these names up???). For added interest I rounded off one corner and used my southwestern punch on two more. Looking at them on screen I think it needs something (a gem maybe) in the bottom left corner. Will have a fiddle later today and see but for now WORK beckons!

Edited to add: I decided to go with the gems, they seem to finish the twinchies off.