Addicted to Stamps Challenge

The challenge on Addicted to Stamps this week is to follow a sketch which they have provided -  following a sketch is an excellent way to lay out a card if you are ever stuck for ideas and this one was quite straightforward.  Background paper is from My Minds Eye; I embossed a piece of Core-dinations card with dots for one of the layers; the image is a stamp from Stampin' Up Faith in Nature set; the swirly frame was cut with a Lea'bility die and that's it really - a simple card for a simple layout.  I hope you all have a good weekend - feeling quite autumnal (ie chilly) this morning but the sun is trying to break through.

V is for Vintage

Did I mention that the tag swap at Chocolate Baroque seems to be more difficult now we are getting to the end letters of the alphabet?  I decided eventually to go for a fairly obvious one here and chose VINTAGE - using the Haberdashery stamps. The dress form was stamped onto a scrap of patterned paper and cut out so that I could layer it.  Background is again from Tim Holtz vintage shabby collection overstamped with smaller stamps from the set.  Of course I had to add a piece of cream lace from my trimmings scraps and made a dimensional flower with some of the backing paper using a Studio 490 stamp. Only four more letters to go now and I will have a beautiful and varied collection of twelve tags by the end of the year.

The Lost Twinchie

The twinchie which I thought I'd lost when Craft Artist shut itself down wasn't in fact lost after all.  When I opened up the programme this morning it asked me if I wanted it to try and recover the unsaved work - how great is that?  Here is my third twinchie - a steampunk sort of Halloween - I hope you will pop over to see what their Design Team have made for this fun challenge.

For a Friend

Have you ever spotted a 'must-have' die or stamp on a blog, purchased said item, only to find that it is much larger or smaller than it appeared??  Well that was the case with this lovely Marianne die set - much larger than I thought but at least it didn't need the addition of too much to turn in into a special card with a simple stamped sentiment from Stampin' Up. If you are wondering, this is a six inch card.  I made the roses using a Creative Expressions embossing folder and cutting out the individual flowers to manipulate and layer - a bit fiddly but something which can be done easily while watching TV. The leaves were made using a Crealies die and of course cut from some of my scraps.  Backing paper is from a Prima pad - love their designs.  Not the best photo but the light isn't brilliant at the moment and the flowers are too deep for a good result using the scanner.

Twinchie Time

Time for a new challenge on Show is Your Twinchies blog and this time they are asking for some two inch square pieces of art with a Halloween theme. The first one was stamped using an owl on pumpkin stamp from a set of the new clear stamps by Chocolate Baroque.  Unfortunately I had to chop off the bottom of the pumpkin to make it the right size - thought that would be preferable to chopping the head off the owl!!  The second one was produced on the computer using Craft Artist software.  I did have a third one in the making on the computer but the programme crashed  and closed down so I lost it with no time to make it again at the moment.

Fleur de Lys Take Two

Two posts in one day, but I just had to go ahead and make a more appropriate card for the Make My Monday challenge.  Backing paper is again from Tim Holtz Vintage Shabby collection but with more obvious french text; the same Cuttlebug fleur de lys embossing folder using Coredinations blue card sanded to reveal the kraft core.  I remembered I had a Spellbinders fleur de lys die set as well so I cut out some kraft card to layer the Arc de Triomphe image (stamp from Chocolate Baroque). Next time I have the bright idea of covering more than one challenge at a time I will try to ensure that my brain is properly in gear before I start!!
At least I have another card  to pop into my 'cards suitable for men' box.

Double Challenge

A tenuous French connection  from me this week for Make My Monday.   They are asking for FLEUR DE LYS to be included and I was so busy trying to make a card that would cover two challenges that I realise now the rest of the card isn't actually French - doh!!!  I will maybe make something else  more appropriate  before the week is out  but in the meantime I'm posting this anyway.  The other challenge is from Hels for the Sunday Stamper challenge and she is asking for metal to be a part of the project along with some stamping.

Background paper is from Tim Holtz vintage shabby collection (actually there is  french text on this but you can't actually see much of it!!).  The FLEUR DE LYS piece was core-dinations card put through a Cuttlebug embossing folder, the metallic layer is adhesive metal tape applied to card and run through a brilliant embossing folder from Tim Holtz (just couldn't resist this one when I spotted it).  The winged hat is a stamp from Chocolate Baroque Steampunkery, the tag is a bit of recycling using a label saved (as you do) from something I'd bought with the addition of some computer text. Some metal embellishments and there it is, a card covering two challenges albeit very loosely for MMM but it does at least have FLEUR DE LYS!!

U for Umbel

Well it's tag time again for the swap at Chocolate Baroque; we are coming towards the end of the alphabet and these last few letters are proving to be the most difficult, particularly when it comes to working around which of their stamps (or other products) will be appropriate.  For 'U' I finally settled on UMBEL which I'm sure you know is the name for the flower head of such plants as cow parsley, Queen Ann's lace and so on.  Fortunately I have Elusive Images (now known as CB) UA4SP0176 which is a stamp set with lots of grasses and meadow plants.  The tag background was made using a technique from Tim Holtz called marbled distress - combining Picket Fence which is a white distress stain with other colours on a craft mat and 'mopping' them up - a technical term!!  Some pieces are more successful than others with this technique but most can be used so a fun thing to try.  I then stamped some of the grasses in matching distress ink and once thoroughly dry the flower was stamped with white ink and embossed using white fine detail powder.