New Home Card

I'm putting this card up quickly today because I've heard some people seem to be having posting problems and I said I'd have a go to see if it's a general problem this afternoon. The stamps are from Chocolate Baroque colouring was done with Polychromos pencils.  Backing paper was from by bits box and I used a brick wall embossing folder (Sizzix) and some Spellbinders dies.

St Luke's Charity Challenge

I can hardly believe this challenge has been going for a year but it is an anniversary over on St Lukes blog so do pop over and see what they are all about. This month they are asking for cards with BLING by way of celebration so I've stamped a quirky tree using a Polkadoodles free stamp which came with a magazine a while ago and coloured with Promarkers.  Some friends and I were looking at (and buying) border punches at the weekend and we were joking about keeping all the little 'waste' pieces to use on cards and this is exactly what I've done here - saved the little punched out flowers and added them to the tree with bling gems in the centres. Backing papers are by Papermania and of course the border was made using the Tonic punch. The circles were cut with Nestabilities and layered onto a Marianne die cut; sentiment printed on the computer.

Bluebird

I've been keeping an eye on the Tim Holtz tags of the month and at last I've actually got around to having a go.  This one is based on his April one and you can see the details on the blog section of his website here.  As usual I didn't quite have all the items he used so a bit of improvisation was necessary.  The background text stamp on the tag is En Francais from Stampin' Up, the little bird is from a set by Chocolate Baroque and the 'dream' ticket is a stamp by Creative Expressions.  The background paper on the DL card is from Papermania  and has been sponged to match the colours on the tag - ribbon was also dyed with the same Distress colours. The embossing folder used and the tree branch die are from Sizzix.

Make My Monday week 45

We are still on a male theme at Make My Monday and this week they specifically want to see male sports or hobbies which made me wonder just what I had which might fit the bill.  I went through quite a lot of my stamps with no succes so turned to the many files of digital stamps stored on the computer some of which I've had for ages and I'm afraid in the early days I wasn't good at recording the source.  Eventually I've ended up making two cards and I can't really decide which I prefer or if in fact if I really like either of them - mojo seems to be off on a holiday again!! The first one is from some images called George at Work (source unknown) and I've chosen this happy gardener.  Backing paper is from My Mind's Eye with some die cut Nestabilities and embossed card using a Sizzix folder.

The second one is a cute image of Magnum and Lily by Ladybug Crafts Ink coloured with Coloursoft pencils. Backing paper was printed from Polkadoodles Definitely for Men CD with the addition of some Coredinations card embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and sanded to show the kraft core. I'm beginning to wish I'd not added the raffia bow but it is well and truly stuck with glue gel and I really thought it needed something in that corner.

Yet again I seem to have managed to come up with cards suitable for Judith's Forgotten Friday challenge - the Magnum image I've had for quite a while and not actually printed before and theGgeorge images go back several years and the file hasn't been opened for absolutely ages but now I've remembered them there are several others in the set which are good for male-orientated cards so I will be using them as well.

Simply Stampin' Challenge week 55

The Simply Stampin' team have provided us with a sketch this week for their challenge.  I used a flower stamp and word from the Bloomin' with Beauty stamp set and a piece of SU backing paper from my stash.  The flowers were coloured using Polychromos pencils and the centre one was cut out and layered up for a bit of dimension.

I is for Imagine

Well I'm afraid imagination was lacking a little when it came to making the tag for I this month and I had very few words on my list.  Eventually I settled on IMAGINE because I have this lovely word stamp from the  Chocolate Baroque Artistic Expressions set - also closer inspection of a roll of Tim Holtz tissue tape revealed a definition of the word imagination which I've also incorporated.  The background was made by stamping a CB brocade stamp with Distress ink and embossing with matching distress embossing powder. The tag was then inked with distress inks and a masks were used for the letter and the texture. Not the most 'imagininative' tag but time is running short as they have to be posted off soon - I must start work on them earlier in the month I think. I had a good day with my beadwork demonstrations yesterday although I had to work with my coat on all day as despite a sunny start the weather deteriorated and we had heavy rain/hail in the afternoon which made it even colder in the marquee.  As soon as I got home I popped a bowl of porage into the microwave for my tea because it was the quickest hot food I could think of to warm me up!!

H is for Heart

Well it is alphatags time again and here is my offering for H - H is for Heart (and Happy).  The background was achieved with Distress  and Adirondack dye inks, overstamped with text.  The Heart (and happy) quote is from an A4 plate of lovely quotation stamps by Chocolate Baroque and the heart stamp is also from them stamped onto cream watercolour paper and embossed in gold.  Some cream lace and a gold die cut swirl were added as finishing touches.