Monthly Challenge - October

This month's letter is H for Harvest with only one colour option of heliotrope (a pinky purple).
I used an old Heartfelt Creations stamp set for the image and the text stamping it in sepia ink and colouring it in with Coloursoft pencils and solvent. As the image wasn't wide enough I added a couple of extra pumpkins.

Monthly Challenge - September

This month's letter in the monthly postcard challenge is M for Music with colour options of mustard, magenta and maroon.
I wanted to use this very old Non Sequitur image of a singer and found a Hans Christian Andersen quote I thought would be suitable to go with it. I stamped the image and masked it before making the background with various stamps and stencils. I stamped the musical score (by Katzelkraft), then removed the mask and coloured the image with pencils and solvent. I added the computer generated words and some punched music notes.

Monthly Challenge - August

This month's letter for the monthly challenge is L for Lace with colour options of Lavender/Lilac, Lemon and Lime I had a few ideas in my head and for once I actually managed to (sort of) create what I imagined. I know that this would have been perfect for June's W for Wings challenge but sadly this did not come up in my thoughts then. I was going for a collage type effect this month and didn't really want the lace to be the focal point.
The background started off with DO's in fossilized amber and spiced marmalade roughly brayered over the card. I added TH's lace stencil in twisted citron DO but wasn't happy with the effect so added a few torn strips from a book and lightly gesso'd over all of it. As it was drying I used a hessian effect background stamp in places where the gesso was a little thicker to add some texture (this would have been more effective if I'd thought of doing it before most of the gesso had dried!). I decided to try the TH lace stencil and twisted citron DO again and this time I was happier with the result. I wanted some splatters so mixed up a little scarlet Brusho and water. When dry I added a lacy border die cut (a very old Xcut one) and a strip of lace held in place with some flower brads. The scribble circle die cut is by TH and the bird is a Katzelkraft stamp. I added some ruled lines and stamped the quotation from a  Hampton Arts stamp and die set. Finally I added some clear sequins and a few tiny gems.
Here's a better view of the sequins:

Monthly Challenge - July

This month's letter is U and the word is Umbrella. I decided to pass on TH's Umbrella man and Crafty Individuals parasol lady at the beach and then contemplated a weather related postcard but finally decided to use this balancing lady die I bought last year. The background is a scrap I'd used to clean my brayer off on and I decided to continue with the green theme adding some red gems for contrast and some purple swirls. The stencilled swirls are by Splodge-a-mask in dusty concord DI. The sentiment is by Paper Artsy from Swirls and Curls 4 and the swirls along the edge are Bricks and Mortar 3. I thought she seemed to be struggling to balance herself and felt the sentiment was appropriate for us all as we wobble our way through life. I edged the card with bundled sage and pumice stone DIs.

Tropical Toucan

I started this with the idea of using it for the 'Wings' monthly challenge for June but then went in a completely different direction for that project.
The background was stencilled with various colours of Distress Oxides. The toucan die is by First Edition Craft (from Hobbycraft). The branch is a Memory Box die. I added some punched flowers and dragonflies and embellished with tiny pearls.

A Gin Card

I can't be the only person to have noticed how gin seems to be very much the 'in' drink of the moment. At Ally Pally in April I saw a Crafter's Companion stamp set called 'Chocolate, Coffee, Gin' which looked perfect for the gin-lovers I know. The set comprises of various words (6 in total) that can be added to the main text. On the same stand was a Crafter's Companion Gemini stamp and die set called 'Cocktail Hour' which I thought would fit perfectly with the text stamp. The Gemini dies are outline dies that come in 2 parts - either half can be used or the two can be used together to cut out the whole shape. Here I've used the right hand half to cut out half the stamped shape. I coloured the stamped image with pencils and solvent and gave the 'gin and tonic' some added sparkle with Wink of Stella. 

Monthly Challenge - June

This month's word is W for Wings. I bought a set of layering dies at Alexander Palace in April. They can be used independently but are designed to be cut and used on top of each other. I cut the first layer with purple card and the second (top) layer with lilac card. These were both mounted onto white card to give the above effect. The size of each die is quite small so it had to be cut twice to achieve the 10x14cm size I needed. It was very fiddly but in all fairness my cutting plates are very old and marked and I think new plates would have given better results. The main image is an old Crafty Individuals stamp and the slight golden sheen you can see on the wings is actually silver foil. The flowers were made by punching out circles, cutting out a rough spiral and rolling it. I added pearls in the centres and punched some leaves in a contrasting green. The text is by Paper Artsy. To finish I added some tiny pearls to the background.