Happy Mother's Day

I made this card with a new challenge blog in mind called The Library Challenge hosted by Marina from My Perfect Life.  Its a great idea for those of us that like to indulge in a good book.  Each challenge is a based around a novel and you can take inspiration from the book cover that Marina uploads, the story or the title.  

The challenge running at the moment until the 10th March is the classic Pride & Prejudice and I took my inspiration from the beautiful book cover and part of the title.  Pride and moms go hand in hand so with that in mind I made a Mother's Day card.  

Thanks to terrible dull weather the flowers look quite gordy on the photograph but they are a little more subtle in reality.  I started by stamping each of the flowers and leaves one by one in Versamark and then embossing with antique gold.  I coloured them with alcohol pens, added the sentiment and left it at that as I felt it didn't really need anything else.

This is a slightly better photograph so you can see the embossing, it reminds me of a technique I used to do at School with silk and hot wax, sometimes the simplest of ideas give you the best results.

Challenge Links...

The Library - Pride & Prejudice
CAS on Friday - OLC
Stamping Sensations - Anything with Flowers
Crafty Cardmakers - Floral Delight

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Happy Mother's Day

You're a Tweet Heart

Popping in with a very quick CAS card for CASology with the cue word being PUN.

These little birdies are from a very old Hero Arts stamp set together with the sentiment.  I coloured them with Crayola Pro Pencils because alcohol markers were a bit too stark and I wanted to keep it Spring like.  I grounded the image with a patch of grass and matted them behind a stitched square die, there is a little bit of glitter on the birds but we all know its a pig to photograph.

Challenge Links...

CASology - Cue Word PUN

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You're a Tweet Heart

Happy Cake Day

Oh this should have been a simple card but boy oh boy I couldn't get it right.  I wanted my cat to be the colour of a Siamese and I'd practised the colours on a scrap of paper and was happy with them.  Trouble started because I was preparing tea and by the time I came back to do the colouring, I'd completely forgotten which browns I'd picked out having not made a note of the colour numbers... and do you think I could get it to look like the image on a scrap of paper... hell no, so he ended up being a cat wearing black mittens on his paws, a bruised tail and strange ears!

Anyway... this is Newton Loves Cake and he's coloured with watercolour pencils and a bit of Wink was added to the frosting, the sentiment is from the same stamp set.  I stitched a white wavy border around the edge as a frame and coloured some cream pearls with a pink sharpie and there we have it - a weird coloured cat ;)

Challenge Links...

Papercraft Challenges - Sweets for my Sweet (cake)
Addicted to CAS - Code Word CAT 

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Happy Cake Day

Delight

I've got to that point in the year where I love using pastel colours, I always seem to change my mood when Spring is looming - I guess that's what happens when you're born on the vernal equinox.

I took inspiration from the Fusion sketch again and used shades of pink.  The longest part of this card was faffing with the tones for the layers of the rose, I felt like I'd been stamping for hours and getting nowhere.  As a last resort and out of sheer frustration I used dye based ink but spritzed it with water before I stamping onto normal cardstock and it gave the rose a mottled look - I liked it, so I rinsed and repeated and finally I was happy, although the cardstock didn't really appreciate being wet!

I die cut the heart, embossed the front, then added some pretty pink vellum behind the aperture and behind the butterfly.  The sentiment is a decade old Hero Arts wooden stamp which was white embossed.  To finish I added a little gem and used Glossy Accents to add fake droplets of water on the petals.

Challenge Links...

Fusion - Sketch
Butterfly Challenge - Letter P (Pink Butterfly)
Less is More - CAS Dry Embossing
HLS - Anything Goes with Dies  (Butterfly, heart and rose)

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Delight

I Heart You

After last weeks torrid time with crafting, I have finally managed to get back on track and created two cards for the oodles of love themed challenges taking place.

Now my 'heart' supplies are at a bare minimum but I did find two dies in my Lawn Fawn Snow Days set, OK they are a little smaller than I would have liked so I really had to dig deep for a way to make one teeny weeny and one not so teeny weeny heart fill a card blank.

This design came about by accident after I dropped a tray of bits and bobs on the floor and noticed a bag of chipboard letters with all the dodgy ones still left.  Much to my amazement I did find an I and U and that was the basis for the card.  I coloured them black, die cut the hearts out - added a bit of wink on the bigger heart and a gem.  I used my rectangle die to emboss three stitched lines for the trio of little hearts.  I also used my Sharpie pen trick for the fake matt, it saves me ever buying coloured cardstock and I think it really gives the illusion of another layer.

I decided to do an Anniversary card for the my second choice.  I made an ombre background and didn't really like it but decided if I cut out the hearts down one side and pop it behind, it might just look better and what do you know, it did so I ran with it.  I did add a few paint splatters and decided to keep the two red hearts as positives to represent the couple.  Stamped the sentiment and added two gems to the start and end of 'Happy' and that folks was me happy with my attempts.

Challenge Links...

Twofer Challenge - Prompt Hearts (Valentine/Anniversary cards)

CAS on a Friday - Dies (hearts Anniversary card)

Always Fun Challenges - Valentines (first card)

Crafty Cardmakers - Love and Valentines (first card)

Little Red Wagon - Shades of Red (second card)

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I Heart You

Love You

Well... my mojo hadn't just disappeared this last week it buggered off completely for awhile there!  Its still not functioning on all cylinders but I have finished a card without the desire to throw it in the bin like its predecessors.

A simple CAS design with a peek-a-boo frame and a scrap of vintage patterned paper with script.  I die cut the heart and fussy cut the butterflies out by hand and if I was to be my usual critical self I'd say the butterflies are too dark but hey it survived my ruthlessness :) 

I coloured it with alcohol markers and added a very simple sentiment.  There has been Wink of Stella added to the heart and butterflies but I had to wait for the postman to come and long gone are the days when Royal Mail deliver happy mail before you get up and it was too dark to re-photograph.

Challenge Links...

CASology - Butterfly
Allsorts - Love is in the Air 
Fab 'n' Funky - Say it with Words

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Love You

Love Coffee

Swoon, not a word I use very often, if at all and considering Jason Statham and Robert Downey Jr are busy doing something in a place called Hollywood I had to rethink my approach to the CASology challenge.  Now I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in 'swooning' over a cup of coffee with its distinctive rich aroma... and that was the basis for todays card.

Now this bunny swoons over coffee so much he's dived in ears first to look for more at the bottom, leaving his own bottom on show!

The background was created with distress inks onto an acrylic block then spritz with water and stamped directly onto the card.  The coffee cup has been overworked, simply because the first layer dried to a shocking neon pink and wouldn't look out of place at an 80's rave so I got up this morning and toned it down quite a bit.  The 'coffee' is part of a bigger sentiment that I just masked out and inked up coffee, 'love' is a die.  To finish I added a generous amount of Stickles to his tail and some little pink hearts - not to his bottom of course, to the side of the card :) 

Challenge Links...

CASology - cue word SWOON (hoping coffee swooning is allowed)
HLS - February Watercolour (bunny and cup watercoloured with Inktense)
Double D - Kitchen is in the Heart of the Home (coffee)

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Love Coffee