Anniversary Card

I bought a Marion Emberson set of stamps called Build a Tree from a shop that was sadly closing down and never one to leave a new stamp uninked for too long I decided to make a quick anniversary card for my in-laws. They will be celebrating 61 years of marriage! We had a big celebration last year for them and some of their friends but this year will be much more quiet. I'm pleased with the way this stamp prints. I used a Spellbinders oval and a Marianne fancy oval die. I know they are not a perfect match but I think it just about works. The sentiment is from a Papermania Art Deco set.

Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - B

If ever a week in my life matched the letter chosen for the Craft Barn Challenge it would be this week. The letter is B and I have selected baby but I could equally have chosen boy. One of my baby boys had a birthday this week (he turned 19!) and the other graduated from University and is now a BA.
I have used a Katzelkraft stamp (I believe it's an image of the owner Béatrice) and an image and quote from Paper Artsy. The BG is Impress cerulean blue with Stazon azure blobs or blotches made with a Katzelkraft stamp. The quote on the left hand page is by Hampton Art Stamps.

LIM 124 - Hexagons

This card  which I'm entering in this week's Less Is More Challenge is still awaiting a sentiment. Once I've decided on the occasion it's for I'll add the sentiment on a slant in the top and bottom hexagons (Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary etc). Not really much to say about this. I did a hexagon card a few days ago here which I feel is much better but the rules say no back-linking so I wanted to try something different. I used papers from Crate Papers Pink Plum collection and my Sizzix dies to cut the shapes.

New Rubber

As I mentioned below I received an order from Crafty Individuals yesterday. Last night I had a chance to ink up one of the new stamps - it's called Tea at 3 no 389. I fell in love with this gorgeous image and decided my first attempt with it would be to add a little watercolour to it. I can see lots of variations on this and mounted the bird on foam pads this time. I stamped the image in archival sepia to give a softer appearance. I wanted it to look delicate and feminine and kept the colours muted. The edges of the white card blank were brushed with worn lipstick DI. I added a scrap of patterned paper from CI's Springtime pad and a couple of Marianne flourishes. A few days ago I realised how many eyelets I have and I am determined to make use of them so now my eyelet haul has been reduced by 3!

Now That's What I Call Service!

I don't usually do this sort of thing but I have to give credit for brilliant service. I placed an order with Crafty Individuals towards the latter part of yesterday morning. Less than 24 hours later I received the order along with some very useful small stamps as a thank you. I'm the first person to complain about bad service so I felt I ought to congratulate this company for its good service. Plus if you enter the June Challenge on their blog you can get a very generous 25% off all full-price items so this is an ideal time to stock up on their fabulous stamps, masks and dies.

Crafty Individuals - June

This month's challenge on the Crafty Individuals blog is Sun, Sea & Beach. I have the CI beach hut set but there have been so many beautiful examples using this set that it was hard to come up with something else. I decided to use the colours the theme conjured up - yellow, blue and beige. I used pastels to scribble the sky, sea and sand. CI's Alice Palace British Bulldog was stamped on a piece of scrap card and watercoloured. I made a sun hat with a small rolled flower. The letters were cut from Tim Holtz's Alphabetical die. I added some tiny shells from CI's beach hut set.
Edited to add: It struck me that non-Brits may not fully understand the sentiment. There are several elements in a traditional British seaside holiday of days gone by - a stick of rock (hard candy I think it's called in American), fish and chips, the weather (usually wet and windy with the odd glorious day in between that makes it all worthwhile) and a 'kiss me quick' hat which was always available to buy in the seaside shops. This was basically a sun hat with 'kiss me quick' written on it.

Scraps

Here are a couple of quick cards I made with bits that were hanging around my desk. After I'd made the BG for the Tim Holtz tag here I mopped up the leftover ink with a piece of scrap white card. I used this to stamp the Penny Black iris (Andante). The card on the left uses some yellow and teal card offcuts. The photo corners and ornate squares are punched shapes. The card on the right is matted on scraps of black and teal card and I've used a Sizzix/Hero Arts stamp & die set for the butterflies which are raised.

Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - U

Washing line sketch by Jo Spaul

This fortnight's letter for the Craft Barn Challenge is U. Of course umbrella was my first thought but I thought a lot of people would choose that so I decided on underwear (I have no idea why). I found this sketch of undies on a line and decided to go from there. After covering the pages with white acrylic paint I decided to leave the BG quite plain and stark (clean, white underwear was the way to go when I was little). I coloured the sketch with coloursoft pencils and then made up this quote using another 2 words beginning with U. I had planned to stamp a corset on the opposite side but (Goldilocks moment) 1 stamp was too big and the other too small. I remembered I had a Non-Sequitur plate (Springtime in Paris, I think) with a lady's torso and 2 different skirts and legs to use with it. I embossed the feathered skirt with red glitter embossing powder and coloured in the other parts with watercolour pencils. I decided she ought to be a high-kicking showgirl (she's forgotten to dress herself as my mother would say) and if you look closely you can see her flashing either a garter or the top of her stocking (I leave it to your imagination). As the BG was very plain I edged both pages with some ink.
Phew I'm quite worn out after that!
Edited to add: A Wall of Fame winner.

Tim Holtz Tag - June

Having missed last month's tag on Tim Holtz's blog I thought I'd better get this month's done early. It's quite unusual in that it has no dangly bits or pieces - just stamping and colouring and almost C & S by Tim's standards. I used salty ocean, brushed corduroy and wild honey DIs on a craft sheet. I used various stamps from the Classic favourites set. I stamped a Paper Artsy dragonfly on some watercolour paper, masked it and stamped the Katzelkraft text stamp (I know I use this a lot but it always seems to fit - it's a fabulously useful stamp) and a B-line Design postmark . I used my Whisper markers to colour in the images according to Tim's instructions, highlighted the edges with brushed corduroy DI and stuck it on the tag.

UK Stampers ATC Swap - June

The theme for this month's swap on UK Stampers is embossing. I clear embossed some bubbles (by Rubber Stampede) and then used ripe persimmon, seedless preserves and mowed lawn DIs on a craft sheet with gold shimmer spray. The ATC blanks were then embossed with Papermania's secret garden embossing folder, Versamark rubbed over the raised parts and Perfect Pearls applied with a brush. The die is a coneflower by Joy Crafts. The corners were rounded and gingham ribbon and computer generated text added.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - June

This month the theme for postcards on UK Stampers is hats. I've had this Pink Cat Studio stamp from the Women in Art set2 for quite a while (I think it came in a grab bag) and it seemed appropriate to use it. The BG is ripe persimmon and mowed lawn DIs spritzed with gold shimmer spray on a craft mat. When dry I used a mask and perfect peach Glimmer Mist. Again I waited until it was dry and added a couple of rub-ons in the corners which I then covered with spiced marmalade DI. The BG script is by Katzelkraft with Brilliance platinum planet. I stamped the Pink Cat Studio lady on a scrap piece of card, coloured her in with coloursoft pencils and Sansodor and cut her out. I hope this month's recipient likes it.

Hexagons

I've just scrapped my first complete album about a trip I made in April. It was an 8 x 8 album and I ended up with a lot of 4 x 12 scraps. I'm trying to use these up as side fold cards that are roughly A6 in size. This piece of grey Bazzill cardstock was perfect for a card that I made to try out my new Sizzix hexagon dies. I've been wanting a set of hexagons for a while and when I saw this set demoed by Paula Pascual at the Extravaganza on Sunday I knew it was just what I was looking for. This makes a very quick card and if you use a set of patterned papers they should all go together. I used K & Co's Remake Ocean Blues pad and a Paula Pascual sentiment on one of the hexagons which I raised on foam pads.

Floral Rub-Ons

As I mentioned in a previous post I didn't manage to do Tim's tag for May but it wasn't because I didn't try, it's just the results were awful. However looking on the bright side I did get some ancient rub-ons out and as there were only a few odds and ends on the sheet I thought I'd use them up. The BG is a remnant from one of my attempts at the May tag, made with DIs on a craft sheet. My Mona Lisa stamp looked hideous on the BG but this flower rub-on seemed to fit the colours well. I used my nesties to cut the plain & scalloped ovals and mounted them on a teal card blank (this is actually the same colour as the darker parts of the leaves and not as blue as it appears on screen). A Paula Pascual sentiment completed the card.

Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - F

The twist in the 11th Alpha Challenge on the Craft Barn blog is the letter F but only words between Fe and Fr. That ruled out several good words such as family and face. I've been away for a few days and have been trying to catch up with various things so I've only just managed to complete this.
I decided to go with Free/Freedom. Apparently in the language of colours, blue is the colour of freedom (who knew?) so there is quite a bit of blue.  I drew hand sketched frames (you could call them freeform?) and used tumbled glass, salty ocean and stormy sky DIs on the BG over some cloud-shaped masks. The flying birds (they have feathers, right?) are Tim Holtz and Crafty Individuals stamps and the bird die is by Sizzix (I could say it was a finch but I think it's a swallow). The foliage and flowers are by Paula Pascual from the punchable tags set. The text is cut from an Xcut set and Tim Holtz's alphabetical die.
I'm sorry I have not been able to visit anyone this week - I have an awful lot on at the moment but I will try and have a look at your no doubt wonderful entries.

Tulips!

Well it's been rather quiet on this blog lately but that's not to say I haven't been busy on the crafting front. I've been away on 2 trips and actually made an album of my first trip. I'm way behind on several challenges (I've missed the boat for May's Timmy tag) and I have my dictionary page to do but first (and here's a sentence I never thought I'd write) here's a collaborative card made with Jean Hardy from Crafty Individuals. I went to the Craft Barn Extravaganza on Sunday and it was not the usual bunfight to get a seat to watch the demos, in fact it was all rather civilised and I managed to sit and chat (and watch) Gio (CI and Craft Barn DT) who had come all the way from Rome, Paula (Sizzix designer) who convinced me I needed the Sizzix hexagon die set and Jean Hardy (Crafty Individuals). Jean released her new stamps at the Extravaganza and this tulip stamp is one of them. She gave me this sample which she stamped on a distress ink BG on satin card (which they sell on the CI site), and coloured with DI markers. She then used Sparkle Medium, which is a sort of glitter paste available in various luscious colours, through a CI mask.  I made a quick card out of it when I got home. I trimmed the card and edged it with worn lipstick DI using a brush (a great tip from Jean). The colour blends more easily than with cut & dry foam and gives a lovely soft finish. I edged the card blank in the same way and added 2 squares of CI paper from the Springtime range. I added glossy accents to the tulip heads which has lifted the colour slightly but I like the effect. Do check out the new additions to the CI stamp range, they are fab.
Edited to add Jean has very kindly included my/our card in an announcement about the new stamps on the Crafty Individuals blog. You can see it here.