Butterfly Challenge

Another pink card from me today, so should I say French Rose. This is one of the colours in the Butterfly Challenge this time around. This was the nearest that I could come to French Rose and Flax. I've also added a floral topper that I made using the Crafters Companion  Gemini Foil press and one of the new background plates that  they bought out not long ago, it was foiled onto white card then I added distress inks over the top. The butterfly die that I used was also from Crafters Companion while the Best Wishes is a Sue Wilson die.

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

Sue

Snippets Playground

I decided it was time to have a bit of a tidy up yesterday, needless to say it wasn't long before I got distracted and had a play instead. I found a couple of pieces of watercolour card sitting on the top and also some sparkle powders from Nuvo that were just whispering to me to play with them. The background that I created has quite a shine to it but you can't see it in the photos. Also sitting on the top quite nearby was a set of stamps from Visible Image, Hip Hop Girls. I thought the two went well together. I'm off now to join in the fun over at Pixies Snippets Playground as my watercolour card was about to go into the snippets box and the black matting card came out of it.

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

Sue

Floating Frame Card

 While on a visit around blogland earlier this week I came across a technique that I had not heard of before. It was over on Val's blog Aquarius and she also shared a link to a fantastic video by Jennifer Mcguire. It was this video that I followed and was able to achieve the two cards below. I wont go into details as the video does explain it far better than I ever could but I did use stamps and dies from Crafters Companions new triple layer stamps and the sentiment stamps were also Crafters Companion too.

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

Sue

Pretty In Pink

Pretty In Pink is the theme of the new challenge over at the Allsorts blog this week. I must admit that pink is not a go to colour for me, I don't know why as I like pink. The first stamp that sprang to mind when I though about this challenge was the beautiful Flamingo Stamp by Pink Ink Designs. After discovering these fantastic stamps I must admit to going a bit mad buying them and there are not many that I don't have now. I started with a piece of white card stock which was given the distress ink treatment with spun sugar and squeezed lemonade with a very little of picked raspberry added at the end. Then I stamped the Flamingo onto the top of this and coloured with Spectrum Noir pens, I found some bright pink card to put this onto and then onto an 8x8 card base. I finished by stamping the flower from the set and fussy cutting it out and adding to the corner.

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

Sue

Wings

I'm just popping in today with a card for the current challenge at Make My Monday which is wings. For this card I made a background using Distress Inks and then stamped using Lavinia Stamps. I couldn't resist using this beautiful fairy swinging from the branches, she looks like she's having so much fun. I coloured the flowers at the bottom using Distress Pens and added some sparkle to her wings with a sparkle pen.

I'm also going to enter the Challenge over at A Bit More Time To Craft which is Anything Goes.

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

Sue

Birthday For A Friend

This is a card that my Mum asked me to make for her next door neighbour and very dear friend of 50+ years for her Birthday recently. It's made on a 7x7 card base and inky background using my favourite, distress inks. The flowers were made using the new three layer stamps from Crafters Companion and also their new ink pads. I used two sentiment stamps from Chocolate Baroque "Have A Truly Amazing Birthday was one and then Friend was from another set but the font worked perfectly with the first so I added to the end.

I'm off to join in the challenge over on the Allsorts Challenge blog this week, which I should just scrape in a the last minute. The theme is Mothers Day/Feminine.

Sue

Product Review For Hunkydory

I was recently contacted by someone from Hunkydory asking if I would review of some of their products and I could choose what I wanted to review. Now as most of us know Hunkydory are most well know for their fabulous kits that they produce. Although I do use CD's sometime when Crafting I don't use kits. My greatest love is Stamping and Mixed Media but that was not a problem as two - three years ago Hunkydory  started their own range of stamps and more recently they introduced a range of ink pads too. So it was from these two ranges that I picked what I wanted to review.

I picked Three Stamps all on the same theme, which was Watercolour Birds and I also picked six different colour ink pads to try too.

 First to be put to the test where the ink pads, as a lover of Distress Ink pads I was interested to see how these inks performed. I'm pleased to report that they blend together very well and react to water being dropped onto the surface too. The size of the ink pads is small 2 inches by 2 inches, so if like me you go off to craft retreats and take ink pads with you they are a handy size. They are shaped and look as though they would stack together, however they don't. This was the one thing that disappointed me, but it was a very small thing.

Next I tried the stamps. They are clear polymer  stamp and very good quality as well. I used Versafine Black Onyx to stamp my images and they stamped very crisp and clear. I cleaned the stamps with a baby wipe afterwards and they stood up to a good rubbing to get them clean too. In the past some clear stamps I've used don't like being rubbed clean. I finished my first card by using Brushos in the background and Aqua pens on a palette with a waterbrush for the colouring. I also used the ink pads for the base card using some of the small stamps.

I used three different sized cards from my stamps, the first being a 7x7 (above) and my second was a 6x6. I used the main stamp on it's own this time, just using the description and the speckles from the birds back to decorate the base card,

My final card was an A5 craft card base where I used all of the stamps on the topper this time. They were all coloured with Aqua pens or watercolour paints on watercolour card stock. My reasons for using the different sized cards was that I wanted to show that the stamps were a decent size, not something that could end up getting lost on a big card.

So over all I would give Hunkydory a big thumbs up for the products that I've reviewed and to thank then for the opportunity to review these products. I'm sure it won't be long before I'm buying more of the lovely stamps and also the ink pads.
 

Thank you to all of you that have taken the time to read this to the end. And also for any comments that you wish to leave.

Sue

Rudolph Days

It's time again for another Rudolph Days Challenge, I can't believe how fast it seems to come around every month. My card or should I say cards this month I have made with a favourite stamp of mine from Stampendous. I seem to use it each year and try to do something different with it each time. This year I stamped it using Salty Ocean Distress Inks and then dragged the colour using a wet brush and a little of the ink from a refill bottle when needed. I then coloured the holly using a Distress Marker  and red glitter glue. I used Stickles to add some sparkle to the houses and snow and then some Tonic Nuvo glitter glue on the oval. I added a sentiment that I had received on a free stamp set from a magazine to finish.

 Another 8 cards to add to my growing collection.

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

Sue

Frosty Family

It seems strange to be posting a Christmas card with the beautiful weather that we are having at the moment, but if I want to get a head start then it must be done. I've used a favourite stamp from my stash and I can't remember where it came from, although Creative Expressions springs to mind from somewhere. I stamped onto some water colour card stock and then using a mixture of ink from Distress Ink pads and Aqua pens I coloured the image and the background. I added a little glitter glue underneath the snowmen and distressed the edges with Stormy Sky Distress Ink. I mounted onto an A5 card base and added a sentiment from Chocolate Baroque. Of course I didn't stop at one card I made eight altogether.

I'm entering this into the following challenges:-

Christmas Kickstart Challenge..... Frosty and Friends
Christmas Crafts All Year Round..... Family and Friends

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

Sue

Spring Flowers

I been rather quite lately what with my Mum coming home from Hospital (glad to say she back to normal now) and the Easter hols. But in between I have managed to get some crafting done, just not had time to share with you all. Here is my card for today, it's similar to one that I made at a Phil Martin workshop at the end of last year but I've put my own twist on it. I started with an 8x8 card base and black card for the matting, some white card cut slightly smaller than the black which I coloured with distress inks. I then sprayed Dylusions Shimmer Sprays onto my glass mat and mopped up some of the colour onto the background I had made. I repeated this for the centre circle and added a sentiment from Chocolate Baroque. I made some flowers that from a die that was bought from the Internet and mopped up more spray from the mat before putting together on the card with some die cuts of leaves, from another die bought from the Internet.

Hope you are all enjoying this wonderful weather that we're having at the moment, I'm off to my Sister-in-laws this afternoon.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Allsorts..... Blossoms, Butterflies and Bugs
A Bit More Time To Craft..... Anything Goes
Back To Basics and Beyond..... Use A Spray
My Time To Craft..... Spring Flowers

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

Sue