Card Chain Challenge Reveal - February 2020

I'm a wee bit late with my Reveal post (again), but hopefully you'll cut me a little slack as my back is causing me problems again and I've been rather distracted!

The Card Chain Reveal for February looks amazing! Our 23 participants crafted their hearts out to create some truly lovely cards.

I sent my card to fellow Brit, Hilary. You should visit her blog to see the card she sent to Tina; it's a real stunner!

I had so much fun making this card for Hilary. The little fox is an oldie, but much loved image, from The Ton Stamps and the background is a fav Penny Black stamp. I tucked the moon behind the trees and did a little blending to create a Winter night sky.

I received this gorgeous card from Robyn in Australia.

If you'd like to become a link in our chain and creativity and friendship why not come and play along? You can see the sign-up post for March 2020 here.

Creative With Stamps Challenge #19 - Shoes

I think I should actually title this post something like: 'In praise of MISTIs, Monika and Shoes', as these things all figure in today's blog entry!

I'm proud to be a former member of the Creative With Stamps team. Monika invited me to join a while back when the blog started, and I just knew I wanted to get involved. If you ever get the call from Lilian and Monika just say 'yes' without having to think about it - these guys seriously rock!

The current challenge is shoes, and so I decided to break-out my MISTI and attempt a card I'd had in my head for a while. I used a circular die as a template and then placed the shoes around it at equal intervals. I then removed the die and placed the sentiment in the centre of the circle of shoes. So, so easy!

Sadly, my card hasn't photographed very well, but it does look very pretty IRL, as the shoes are embossed to give some subtle dimension and added interest. I swiped a Distress Ink pad around the edges of the topper and let it drift a little onto the image. Again, this looks a wee bit odd on the picture, but is very nice in the flesh!

Edited to add:
OK, so I revisited this card today (Saturday) and knew immediately what was required to give some necessary ooomph!

I added some pink dots with a much loved Hero Arts stamp. The new photographs still aren't great, but I hope you'll agree that all the masking of the individual pairs of shoes was worth it to achieve a much more visually pleasing card.

This fun challenge runs until the last day of the month, so why not break out your shoe images and sentiments, and play along! The DT girls have created some gorgeous cards.

Creative with Stamps Challenge #2 - CAS Cards

It's time for Challenge #2 over at Creative With Stamps!

I have to say that Lillian, Monika and us DT girls were simply blown-away by the number of fabulous cards submitted for Challenge #1: seems that we certainly like our butterflies in blogland!

This month we're looking for your gorgeous CAS creations; so put away your shabby chic and multi-layered wonders and come get clean and simple with us! Mmmm, having said all that, I really hope that my card is clean and simple enough! 

I know that the lovely Monika loves her shoe stamps so decided to break-out this lovely set from The Ton again to make her smile. I stamped on watercolour paper and coloured with a water pen and Distress Inks, then die-cut and raised the word 'happy'. Perhaps this is what makes the card feel a bit fussy???

To see the beautiful (and far more CAS) offerings from the talented CWS girls click here and enjoy!

Show me a girl who doesn't like shoes...

Okay, there must be plenty of girls out there who don't like shoes but as the saying goes:

Yes, once again I'm playing with that gorgeous shoe set from The Ton. I'm making cards to sell for charity (Cancer Research - UK) and wanted to create a batch of simple but pretty cards.

Hopefully, these fit the bill.

I'm very lucky that Sarah, my local florist, has agreed to sell them in her shop.

I'm linking to the following challenges:
TWOFERS - Challenge #16 is Shoes and My Time To Craft Challenge #138 is Girlie.

Have a great day everyone!

Less is More - Citrus Colour Week

It's a colour challenge over at Less is More this week and what a yummy colour challenge it is!

CITRUS COLOURS

Sadly, my camera and/or my PC seem to have washed-out my vibrant lime, tangerine and narcissus inks despite my best efforts with Picassa and PicMonkey.

I love this stamp set from The Ton, although I have to say I am a little disappointed with the sentiments. I decided to make my own and printed this on my PC and then die cut it.

I then made another card in shades of pink for one of my colleagues. My camera seems to have done a much better job with this one for some reason although it's still not quite right.

These cards were so quick and easy I think I'll make a few more and put them away in readiness for the Macmillan Coffee Morning. By just making one or two additional cards as I go, I should have quite a good stash to sell come September.

Have a great Sunday everyone!

House of Cards February Challenge

Hi, everyone. It's time for another new monthly challenge over at House of Cards! 

For February, Mynn and the gang want you to 'Shape-up' and create a shaped card... That's anything other than a square or a rectangle if you were wondering.

To be honest I thought I'd struggle with this challenge. I usually stick with square and rectangular cards but I have to say I really enjoyed making this little card. I'm now feeling inspired to create more shaped cards.

This little cutie is from The Ton's sweet set 'Hey, Foxy'. I started by inking up a die cut circle with Distress inks to create the nigh time background. Then I stamped the trees (Hero Arts: Winter Trees) in Sepia Versa Fine. The fox is popped up, as is the circle. Finally, although you can hardly tell it, I added Wink of Stella and Stickles to give a frosty finish.

So why not come and join us at House of Cards? We'd love to see how you shape up this month!