Literature Challenge

The challenge this week at Make My Monday is another one inspired by literature and this time it is a book I've not come across called Garden Spells and fortunately we've been given a brief idea of what is within the pages.  I decided to go along with the floral theme suggested by this but of course didn't have any stamps of the flowers mentioned so have had to improvise by using what I had.  The daisy stamp is from Crafty Individuals and the other flowers are from my stash with the addition of a couple of die cut swirls.  Various oddments of card  have been used to add the embossed panel with a punched border and the sentiment is a Stampin' Up stamp popped onto a Spellbinder die cut. I have to admit this is very loosely connected to the theme but inspiration seems to be failing me this week - I did say before that literature isn't really my thing and I hope this will be acceptable for the challenge.  The synopsis provided did conjure up various ideas in my head but somehow they just wouldn't translate into anything workable with what I have in the way of stamps etc.and believe me I have plenty to work with - maybe too much and that could be the trouble!!

Bird House

This cute birdhouse image is a digi one from Sassy Cheryl which I thought would be nice for a New Home card. Image was coloured with alcohol markers and cut out with a Spellbinder die.  Backing papers were some which came free with a recent magazine and the flower (Marianne Die) and leaves (Cherry Lynne) were die cut.  Sentiment produced on the computer and punched (Stampin' Up).

Well there is a bit of weak sunshine this morning but still bitterly cold, at least it is dry so not all bad.

Sunday Stamper Challenge Week 250

This week is the 250th one on the Sunday Stamper Challenge - Ink on My Fingers blog - and the lovely Hels is offering some wonderful blog candy as a prize to a lucky winner.  Just look and see what is on offer. The theme always seems to be based on song titles, quite loosely so never a problem, and this time it is 'shiny happy people' so something shiny has to be incorporated, plus of course some stamping.  I made a shiny panel by embossing a piece of black card with a cuttlebug folder, spongeing it lightly with some acrylic paint and once dry it was rubbed over with Treasure Gold (actually copper), a Papermania Chronology urban stamp was used on card sponged with Distress inks.  Another panel of toning patterned paper was added along with some die cut cogs, also rubbed with the copper and finally some shiny gems were added for that extra touch of bling. The whole thing was layered onto a piece of Tim Holtz shabby vintage paper.

 and here is a photo of the brilliant blog candy

Good luck everyone

Angry Bird

I thought I'd go for a bit of fun with a card for my (adult) grandson because I'm sure he must be a fan of the Angry Birds - I know his father is - and his grandmother (dare I admit it)!!  For those who may not know, it is a series of computer games where birds are fired from catapults to destroy buildings and so on erected by the Bad Piggies who incidentally have stolen the eggs from the birds - yes I know, don't ask!! but it is fun.

The card was made using scraps of card cut out with various punches and dies to resemble one of the birds and a little piggie.  I will endeavour to get back to more serious topics but needed something cheery to do on a dismal and damp Saturday morning - that's my excuse if I need one.

Decoupage

I've not done any decoupage for quite a while but when I saw some of the La Pashe Wrinklies designs I just had to have a go and found them not too difficult to cut out.  The designs are quite large so not much else is required to make a card, just added some embossed background and a sentiment. These are so cleverly drawn aren't they?

Spellbinders Gold

Well I was tempted to get just one set of the new Spellbinders Gold dies and went for the one which matches up with the original Labels Four.  Getting a perfect result was a bit of an adventure to say the least but I think I got there in the end.  These dies are quite intricate and they cut, emboss and deboss which seems to be what was causing me some problems.  I found I was having to put them through twice in different orientations to get the cut but my first attemps resulted in some of the  sections being only partially cut.  When I looked closely at the packaging I realised that these partially cut areas were in fact deboss sections (I think) and ought not to have cut at all.  I'm not sure I will invest in any more of these intricate dies - they seem to take ages to produce by the time the little cut areas have been pushed out and the little bits of silicone paper removed from the deboss areas.  I use silicone baking parchment when cutting some of the more intricate dies as I find it helps to release the card from the die once cut.

Anyway I eventually made a card with a couple of them using backing paper from Papermania, a stamp from Stampin' Up and two of the intricate die cuts.

Cute Hedgie

Well I've done it again - been tempted by a magazine giving away free stamps but my excuse (if I need one) is that they are really cute images from Country Companions and there was also some free double sided paper as well and a retro download  free offer inside.   I've used some of the paper here together with the hedgehog image, coloured with alcohol pens and glitter added to the dandelion clocks.  The greeting was made up from stamps in the set, cut out with Nestabilities. My stamp collection just seems to keep growing so maybe I should avoid the newsagent's shop in future!!