Simply Stampin Challenge week 50

Over on the Simply Stampin challenge blog they are giving us a colour scheme which is shown here - I've had to improvise a little as I didn't have the exact colours but in the main I've used SU products.

I used SU kraft card for the base card (nearest I had to crumb cake) and the papers are from Everyday collection.  The image was stamped from the Fresh Vintage set using waterbased brush pens and cut out using Nestabilities.  A sentiment was produced on the computer and punched using SU punches, the addition of a matching ribbon and tiny flower charm and that's it.

A Spring Thank You

We are still on a Spring theme at Make My Monday but this week they would like to see either a card for Mothers day or a Thank You so I've opted for the latter and gone for Spring colours using papers from Funky Hand Craft the Year Away CD (the March collection) and I think I'm just about in time for their challenge as well where their theme is Flying High.  The stamp is from Papermania and the butterflies were cut and embossed using a Sizzlets die from Stampin Up.

E is for Enjoy

It's time to pack up and post this month's tags for the Alphatag Swap and I just remembered in time to scan/photograph them before I sealed the envelope.  This one is E for ENJOY and also for EMBOSSING which I used as a resist on black card with acrylic paint using one of the Brocade Stamps by Chocolate Baroque.  The swirl was cut from grunge board and coloured with Distress ink, then rubbed lightly with some Treasure gold.  The words were produced on the computer using My Craft Studio. There were three letters to do this month and I'll save F and G for another day.

Peanuts

No, these aren't the edible kind but some peanut beads which I bought about a year ago but hadn't really got around to using them.  They are so called because they are more or less the shape of a peanut in its shell but quite small - roughly the size of two size 11 seed beads joined together and the hole goes through the narrow centre part so they sort of nestle together when threaded. Recently I came across this pattern for a bracelet which should in fact have had a second row alongside the first but I had insufficient 'peanuts' to complete another length. The beads along the outer edge of the strip are the peanuts and the others are rondelles and seed beads.

I've not quite decided if I like this enough to make it again but it was worth doing if only to use these particular beads in something rather than have them sitting around in their packaging.  Varying shapes of small beads do appear from time to time and sometimes I'm tempted to try them but I usually revert to using the more conventional seed beads which I think have more potential.  The latest ones to appear seem to have two holes in them and at the moment I can't really see how they would be used but no doubt some patterns will be in the bead magazines in due course and I might just be tempted again to try something different. As these beads have been lying forgotten in my stash I hope Judith won't mind if I pop this onto her Forgotten Friday challenge this week.

Quirky Village Scene

I was intrigued by some new Papermania stamps designed by Michael Powell which really made me think of Portmerion and the TV series from years ago called The Prisoner which was filmed there (hated to miss an episode of that one!!).  The scenes are unusual in that they are only partially coloured with some details being left as line drawings although of course there is nothing to say they couldn't be completely coloured.  However I decided to go along with the illustration on the packaging and used Polychromos pencils in many colours blended to create a similar effect to his watercolouring.  I found some toning background paper amongst my stash and used a Sizzix brick wall embossing folder on a piece of Core-dinations card to make this into a simple card.

Spring Flowers

Spring is just around the corner - it's official because at least two challenge blogs have chosen it as their theme for the month.  Make My Monday have a general theme of  Spring for the whole month with a specific theme of  Spring Flowers  for week 39.  Spring into Spring  is the theme of the month for the St Luke's Charity challenge.

I just knew that somewhere amongs my huge stamp collection I had a wooden stamp with daffodils and I eventually managed to unearth it to stamp onto watercolour paper and colour using Polychromos pencils.  Nestabilities were used to cut out the oval shapes and Spellbinders dies for the border; background paper is from a pad I've had for a long while and as usual the cover is missing - some stamping was added around the edge.  A stamped greeting was added along with a ribbon and scrap of floral paper from my bits box and that's it - two challenges covered with one card.

More Beadwork

Someone in our local craft group expressed an interest in making an amulet purse with my help so I thought I should maybe make one to test the design to see if it was 'beginner friendly'.  These can be made using a variety of beadwork stitches and fortunately I have a book giving lots of ideas. This one is made using brick stitch which obviously she will need to learn first but on the whole I think it would be reasonably straightforward to make once the stitch has been mastered.  I've used a mix of matte and shiny beads which give the design some variation and I left the bottom edge open so that it could maybe used as a scarf holder - a tip which was passed on to me by another friend - thanks for the idea.