Rudolph Days September

I can't believe that we are at the end of September, I've just returned from Cornwall where despite having awful weather to drive down in we had the most glorious week. We went with my Daughter Son-in-law and grandson and managed the beach most days. I even managed to get sun burnt. Anyway enough of that, as it's the end of September it's time for the Rudolph Days challenge which I'm just going to have time to enter this month. I prepared these two cards before going away knowing that I would not have time to make them when I got back. Both cards are made using Heartfelt Creations Merry and Bright collection and the Poinsettia stamp die and flower mould. The sentiment dies are from the Sue Wilson collection for this Christmas.

 The stamped and die cut images were either coloured with Pencils or with distress inks and mini blenders.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

The Colour Blue

I didn't think that I would be joining any challenges this week as we are of the Cornwall this morning, but I had this card (just finished) for a friends birthday sitting on my desk waiting to be sent. It fit's perfectly with the new challenge over on the Allsorts Challenge blog which is Water or the Colour Blue. The stamp is a new one that is designed by Pip Art, Pip is Dali Grahams Sister and you can find her wonderful stamps over on the Dali Art website. I've used three colours of blue distress inks to colour my sky around the eagle and then splashed some water over and removed some of the colour, the trees used and the sentiment are from the same set. I coloured the image which has the scene inside of it with distress pens. Right got to rush as I have the car to pack now. 

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Inky Background

Over on the Back To Basics And Beyond challenge blog they are asking for you to make cards with Inky Backgrounds. This is something that I love to do, so out came my card and inks and this is what I have come up with. I used Peeled Paint, Wild Honey and Mustard Seed distress inks onto Sheena Stamping card. Then I dribbled water over the background to lift out some of the colour before using this beautiful Squirrel stencil from Sweet Poppy over the top. I used Tim Holtz's Black Soot Archival ink to get the image really black (this is a pad that you have to make up yourself from a reinker bottle and blank ink pad). I them mounted onto some cream card and then onto a 6x6 black card blank. The sentiment was cut out of scraps of Cream and Black using a Paper Boutique die.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Canadian Rockies

The end of April 2017 saw Hubby and I with a friend set off from Vancouver into the Canadian Rockies before dropping down into the USA for a wonderful road trip. Fast forward to now and the Allsorts Challenge blog are asking for cards with scenes made either with stamping or die cuts. This past Saturday saw me up at Ally Pally and while there some gorgeous new stamps from Inkylicious fell into my basket, well once they were there I had to buy them of course. As these were sitting on my desk, I used them to create this scene which reminded me of our road trip and the Rockies in particular. Although the cottage was from the snowy scene, I've changed the colours and tried to make the roof look like it is a thatched roof, therefore making it look like Spring/Summer, I also added some green to the tree. We saw lots of deer on our trip through the Rockies and did see a wolf, lots of Buffalo and Bears this was later on in the USA.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue xx

Steampunk/Goth Wedding

The other day I showed you a project made from the Creative Craft Academy, today I'm back with the project I made with some of the paints left over. The bit that was done with the same technique was the background, which I wanted to look like a piece of rusty metal. I've made this picture box for my Niece and her soon to be new Husband (they are getting married on the 12th October) who are both into Steampunk and Gothic. In fact this is the theme to their wedding. I saw the sculls on The Craft Box website and as soon as I saw them I knew that I needed to make them something with them, along with the cog corners which were also from The Craft Box. I had plenty of metal embellishments that I've put with them, just adding a bit of gold gilding wax onto the metal to make them a bit brighter. the paper roses were in my stash and I darkened that edge of those with distress ink. The circles in the other corners were left over from another project but seemed to fit in with this perfectly. I just hope that they both like it now it's finished. I'm off now to join in with the More Mixed Media Challenge.

Just need to make a card now.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Snippets And A Butterfly

My card today came together after receiving the new Tonic Mixed Media dies, while taking the dies out of the packaging I noticed that the card on the inside of the packaging was an Apricot colour, just the right colour for the current challenge over on Mrs A's Butterfly blog this time. So I quickly trimmed all of the packets up into usable sizes and used one for the matting on this card. A rummage through my snippets box found some gold card and a piece of precious Graphic 45 from the seasons collection, I layered these together and then from my ribbon stash layered some ribbons across the bottom part of the card. The flowers and butterflies were from a Scrapbook decorative strip that I won in a blog challenge sometime ago, it's been sitting on my shelf waiting for a project just like this. Finally I added a button again from my stash and a Best Wishes sentiment that was from The Paper Craft Boutique. A a lot of this came out of my snippets box I'm off over to Pixies Snippets Playground to see if there is still time for me to play.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

The Creative Craft Academy

Recently I signed up to the The Creative Craft Academy, this was prompted by my love of Mixed Media and the fact that I sometimes buy stuff without really knowing how to use it. So I thought this would be a great way of learning and playing at the same time. This was my first kit that I received in July. Due to the mess in my Craft Room (now cleared) and the fact that we looked after my Grandson two days a week, it was sometimes hard to find time and space to craft. My Grandson started pre-school last week and now goes there 4 days a week (he wasn't keen last week) so now I have time to get things out and play. I really enjoyed making this and learnt another fantastic rust technique which I have already tried on another project that I'll show you later. The only thing that I would have done differently was I would have swapped the pictures that I was provided with to some sepia family photos, if only I could find those. I thought that I would pop over and join in the current challenge at More Mixed Media, which is Anything Goes with the option of Brown. I'm sure that this rusty look comes under brown somewhere. Now just to make a start on the August kit.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Leaves

My cards today are for the new challenge over on the Twofer Blog, this month they want cards with leaves on. Last month the Tonic Kit (kit 12) was some beautiful leaf dies so this was a good excuse to get them out and used. I've teamed them up with some stamps that were on free with Creative stamper last month too. There was a nice collection of leaves that could be used as background stamps, some nice quotes and also some Halloween stamps too. The one exception to these was the Happy Halloween sentiment which was from a Chocolate Baroque set from a few years ago.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Bears

Bears - that is the latest challenge over on the Allsorts Blog. Because of my craft room clear up recently I knew just where to put my hands on a box with stamps featuring bears, this one is from a collection bought a few years ago from Crafters Companion. The Popcorn Christmas Collection. I stamped the image and coloured using Spectrum Nior pens, added a couple of snowy bumps in the background and then coloured the sky and edges with Distress Inks. The sentiment is from The Paper Boutique and the little snowflakes are some that I bought online. I've also added plenty of glitter to the hats and around the edges of the card it's matted onto.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Back To Basics

Back To Basics is a fairly new challenge blog this being their 11th challenge and seeing as Decoupage is a favourite technique of mine to do it would have been rude not to have taken part in it. This card has been made for My sister-in-law and her husband who are celebrating 48 years of marriage next week, so for their card I have used a Debbi Moore CD - Art Deco Decadence and this lovely image (I use Debbi's CD's a lot for Anniversary Cards as her images lend themselves so well to this type of card). I've matched the backing paper to the image from the same CD and the flowers were made using a Crealies die. The sentiment is from The Paper Boutique and the swirls are from Tattered Lace, the ribbon was recycled from a cake that was brought from my Birthday a couple of months ago.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Something Beginning With B

My card today is for my Daughter who's birthday is in October (good job she doesn't look at this blog) but it fitted in with this months theme over on the Stamping Sensations challenge blog, which is Something Beginning With B. This has Birds, Blossoms, Branches and it's a Birthday card. I've used stamps and Dies from Heartfelt Creations Birds and Blossoms Collection teamed up with papers from the Sweet Peony Collection (I had papers that I had already cut into from this collection and they went so well with the stamps and dies I used). After stamping everything out that I wanted to use I coloured using Distress ink pads and a finger blender. I teamed the papers with some gold mirri card and an 8x8 card base, the corners were cut using a Marianne die and the sentiment is from The Paper Boutique. The stamped elements were attached using glue gel and a little shaping. Now just to hide the card away until her Birthday.

I am also going to enter this into the Allsorts Challenge which this week is Things With Wings.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Butterfly Challenge and More

My card today has been made for the Butterfly Challenge which this time around is E on the colour wheel. Mrs A was asking for card using Embossing Folder, Embossing Powder, Embellishments, the colours Emerald, Eucalyptus and Electric Yellow along with a butterfly. I think that I've managed to use all seven elements on this card. The embossed card was coloured with the Electric Yellow and Eucalyptus and then the body of the butterflies has been embellished with Emerald Green Acrylic Accents and I've embossed the sentiment with gold embossing powder. I've also realised that this card also fits the theme over on the Allsorts Challenge blog which is Things With Wings.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue 

Things With Wings At Allsorts

This week the challenge over at the Allsorts Challenge blog is Things With Wings. Now when I think of things with wings I automatically think of Fairies and Lavinia Fairies are never far from my worktop. So it's no surprise that I came up with this card for the challenge. I've gone for deep yellow and orange to give an Autumnal feel to the card and I've not added a sentiment yet either as I shall pop it into my ready box. I'm sure that I could have come up with so many other things with wings had I thought about it longer, but I want to make sure that I got this made in time to enter.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue