The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #18 - Get a Head-er start!

There's a new elf and a new challenge over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge!

For the next fortnight we're in the company of the very talented Joanne from Ambrosia and Iron.

The challenge theme is to use the blog header as the inspiration for your card.

I decided to focus on the snowman and create a little scene for card #1. I discovered that I couldn't match the colours with my Promarkers, so just did the best I could.

The snowman is from Paper Smooches and the houses are from a Clearly Besotted die.

Card #2 focuses on the snowman's hat, gloves and scarf. I'm much more pleased with the colour match on this card, even if it's still not quite right.

I used this ink combo to create the clothing and dyed some white embroidery thread for the ties on the hat.

The hat, scarf and gloves are from an oldie but gtoodie MFT set (sadly, no longer available) and the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp. 

Rudolph brings us a very sweet Clearly Besotted set as a prize for his Random Raffle for this challenge, so it's worth entering a card to be in the hat to win this sweet trio.

I hope you can come and join us!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #142 - V is for Violent

We have an outstanding new graphic from Sistah Lee to announce the start of our new challenge over at The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers, where V is for Violent!

I had way too much fun with this one and knew immediately that this sentiment (printed on my PC) would work with this Katzelkraft cat.

I did a little basic pencil crayon colouring, mounted the card on MFT dotty paper and called it job done. Such a fun, quick and simple card to make.

Hope you'll find your violent streak and come play along with us.

Seize the Birthday Butterflies!

I needed a quick and simple birthday card, so decided to play along with one of my favourite challenges for a little inspiration.

I'm Seizing the Toppings by playing with this gorgeous set from Jane's Doodles - we could be talking obsession here people!

I attempted an ombre look to my card, but am not that pleased with the effect. It actually looks much better IRL. I think my inking skills AND my photography skills need a little attention!

I'm going to sit back and have a look through the Seize the Birthday gallery now before getting on with a few jobs. Hope your Monday is going well!

Midsummer Blues.

Thanks to everyone who left a comment on my previous post where I talked about Carrie and her mandala-covered car. Carrie is raising money for Cancer Research and I'm trying to do my bit to help her by creating cards featuring mandalas, which I hope to sell.

Here are two more cards I made yesterday. For my Misummer Blues card I had heaps of fun creating the background from Distress Oxides and white paint, and then partially cutting it with the slightly mandala-esque Doily Circle Die from Waffle Flower. The cute butterfly is from a new Jane's Doodles set which I love (expect to see this again and again - you have been warned!) and the sentiment is part of a Simon Says Christmas set.

I'm going to link card #1 to Simon Says: Midsummer Blues Wednesday Challenge. I don't get to play along there very often and I thought it would be nice to do so again. The DT cards are stunning and so inspirational.

Card #2 has a very subtle stenciled mandala in the painty background. The 'Thanks' sentiment was a gift from my sweet blogging friend, Shylaa, so I'm not sure of the product details.

Hope you are all having a happy and creative Sunday!

Meddling with Mandalas part 2

Hi there, as I promised in this post, I'm back to explain why I've been meddling with mandalas.

So a while back my dear friend Simon passed away. Simon was a talented singer song-writer and a wonderful person who was kind and funny and caring in equal measure. He was someone who made a lot of friends.

One of his friends is Carrie. As a tribute to Simon she wants to raise money for Cancer Research and has decided to do this in a rather interesting and unusual way by painting mandala patterns onto her car.

Here's Carrie and her amazing creation.

Carrie has set herself quite a challenging fundraising total, so I thought I'd try and help her along by making and selling cards. As her theme is mandalas I thought I'd create cards using any mandala stamps and stencils that I have in my stash.

Here's some of what I've made so far.

                     

This little quartet has stenciled mandala backgrounds. The sweet image and sentiment are from a freebie give-away in Making Cards and Papercraft Magazine.

I've also made some Gelli Print backgrounds (sooooo wonderfully messy) and am going to see what I can create with those. I'm not sure where I'll sell them, but my local florist friend has sold cards for me in the past so I think I'll ask her if she can help out again.

I think Carrie's doing a great job and her artwork is creating considerable interest in the local area around where she lives. It's a truly fitting tribute to Simon - he'd have loved how totally bonkers the car now looks and the kindness and creativity behind the transformation.

Carrie's fundraising page.

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #17 - Dachsund Through the Snow.

Rather unbelievably we're reached Challenge #17 over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge. 

We've got a new theme and a new elf - Cat Craig from Catluvspaper! I've been a fan of Cat's gorgeous cardmaking style for a long time as I think we got to know eachother through the original incarnation of The Card Chain Challenge.

Our theme for Challenge #17 is Dachshund Through the Snow. Hope you'll forgive the punny title, just couldn't resist it. Yes, for this challenge it's all about our four-footed canine companions!

If you do nothing else today, you must head over to The Christmas Kickstart Challenge to see Cat's fabulous card.

Here are my offerings for the challenge. 

I fell truly, madly and deeply in stamp love when I spotted this little pug from Art Specially. There was quite a bit of fussy cutting involved, but I think it was worth all the effort. The papers are from a Tim Holtz collection that I've been coverting.

My next card makes use of a gorgeous die from Lil' Inker and one of my favourite MFT dogs. The die cut does all the work so this card was very quick to make.

My final card is a CASE of a mass-produced card I saw a while back. I knew I could use a MFT set to achieve the effect of the dog walking in and out of the frame.

I hope you'll enjoy this fun theme and come and join Cat and me for this challenge.

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #141 - R is for RIP

Peepo, Edna, we can seeeeee youuuuuuu!

Our theme is RIP for the next fortnight. You can interpret this as R.I.P. or rip as in torn, or even 'let one rip' which ushers in the opportunity for a 'toot' gag or two!

Guess which route I went... yep, I'm one classy cardmaker.

My yoga-loving friend is gonna kill me when she opens this one!

I created the wording on my PC and left a gap to insert the stamped image. Isn't she fabulous? Art Impressions images are great and I love her expression. She just begged to be paper pieced so who was I to argue. I created a stencil using cloud dies for the 'clouds'!

The sisters have interpreted this theme in a variety of different ways AND we have a truly wonderful card from Queen Samantha. So, what are you waiting for? Hurry on over and take a look!

Meddling with Mandalas...

Hi there, I hope that today finds you happy and healthy.

Today, I'm meddling with mandalas and trying to create some cards featuring these circular lovelies.

Here's the first one I'm able to share.

This is a small card which uses a Gelli print background created with Adirondack Paints and a gorgeous TCW mandala stencil (Mini Prismascope). The image is Kiki Girl from Picket Fence and the sentiment is from Ink Road. The random black stamping around the edges is from an old, old stamp that is missing the company name.

I really enjoyed creating this card and had my first real successes with my Gelli plate. More practice needed, but it's a start! This really doesn't look like a birthday card owing to the sentiment, but it's for the birthday of a friend who has been going through some tough times.

I'm linking to one of my fav challenges:

Seize the Birthday - Challenge #171 where the Topping is Flowers

And for the first time to this lovely, arty challenge:

If you've never visited Lost Coast Designs blog I'd urge you to do so as the stamps are brilliant and the DT inspiration is just awesome. I'm delighted to play along in their Anything Goes Challenge #81.

I plan to meddle with mandalas during this week and I'll share my other cards when they're made, and explain the reason behind this little project.

Happy crafting everyone!

Card Chain Challenge - July 2019 Reveal

It's Reveal time again over at The Card Chain Challenge.

Here's the gorgeouness we had to work with for this month:

Colour Palette

Sketch

Our themes were Figures and faces, sunshine and our perenial favourite of friendship. Our product options were stencils and watercolouring.

I jumped in with both feet on the colour option and got busy with some masking and stenciling.

The card I sent to Lucille in Colarado features a gorgeous Technique Junkies stamp that jumped into my basket a little while ago. Funny how that happens!

My sender for this month was Shylaa in India and I was thrilled receive this little cutie, plus a whole heap of lovely dies cuts and stamped images. Thanks, Shylaa, you are such a sweatheart.

As of 31st July, we've exchanged over 2,809 cards over at The Card Chain Challenge - most of which were made by regular participants. And where do they come from? Read on....

Past participants have hailed from: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Holland (aka: The Netherlands), Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya,  Malaysia, Mauritius, New Zealand, Norway, The Philippines, Portugal, Scotland, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, South Africa. (We only need to get some countries that begin with L, O, Q, R, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z to keep up with our alphabet list! We have 161 countries to go before we have total global participation!!!

As for the USA, past participants come from: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Rather suprisingly, we're still missing: Connecticut, South Dakota, Delaware, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Wanna help grow our list of participating countries or states? Then please come and join in the fun and become a link in our chain of creativity and friendship!