Saturday 30 April 2016

May Calendar


Hee I was flying close to the wire with next month's calendar page for my Mum ;)   For this month, I've gone with the theme 4-legged visitors who visit her house.  From left to right, we have Poppy the labrador, Ruby the Westie, and Freddie the very timid lurcher (he's looking a bit squished here by the cheeky cat!)  Mum doesn't have any cats but they do like to frequent her rose bed and leave her unwelcome messages!

My stamps are from Eat Cake Graphics ...
3002-F Rowley smells something
3015-F Webster's tilting his head
2045-L Leap frog

Doggies coloured with watercolour pencils.  Clear gloss added to their noses.
I went for the bokeh look with my background.  I diecut a few different circles in a bit of card and used it as a template to chalk in lots of different circles.

Mermaid and a bunny

Hi All!  Sorry I've been MIA ... I've had no mojo all week and every card I made ended up in the bin! So these are the first efforts I've been prepared to share :)

My first card uses this super cute mermaid from Eat Cake Graphics
1056-I Mara Mermaid floats
Wish I was there!
Coloured with watercolour pencils and Spectrum Noir sparkle added to her mermaid outfit.
Silver peel offs from stash.  Clear gems. Blue ribbon from my ribbon mountain.  Taylored Expressions DP.  Wonky Stitched circles Dienamics die.

My second card uses this bunny from Lili of the Valley.  Coloured with watercolour pencils.  Clear gloss and glitter added to the grapes and to his medicine.  

Sunday 24 April 2016

Webster's tilting his head

I had one of those days today where I just injured myself from start to finish!  First I sliced into my thumb when cutting the carrots, then I snipped my finger with my scissors when making this card and to finish me off I whacked my thumb on a shelf.  Ouch, ouch and ouch!

Anyway, enough waffle ....  here's a sweet little puppy for you (and a naughty one at the very bottom of my post!)  This is Webster's tilting his head from Eat Cake Graphics - coloured with watercolour pencils and popped up on dimensionals.

My general card design was inspired by this week's featured stamper at Splitcoast - here's Virginia's original.

I must confess, it felt like it took FOREVER to make this card!  I splattered my BG with white paint (I love my Tim Holtz splatter paintbrush thingy) and then die cut the sentiment (Simon Says Stamp).  I added clear gloss and glitter to the white sentiment.  Sequins from Taylored Expressions and some clear bling to finish.  (The colour of the base is more like the pinky colour in the close up)


And just to finish the doggy theme, here's a wee pic of Rubydoo.  She has the whole garden to sit in, and where does she choose?  Yip, the middle of my border.  Don't think the delphinium will recover (don't look at the weeds LOL)

Saturday 23 April 2016

Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been

I've been playing with my Eat Cake Graphics stamps again ;)  This is
2016-G Kitty Sebastian has very long whiskers
and the sentiment is
8042-D Did someone say cake!?! (text)

Coloured with watercolour pencils and clouds chalked in BG.  Dienamics stitched frame die.  DP from Taylored Expressions.







Tuesday 19 April 2016

Try Stampin' on Tuesday DT card

So here's our new sketch for #267 over at Try Stampin' on Tuesday.
Hope you'll play along ... there's an optional theme of using pastels if you like.

For my card I've used this fun stamp from Eat Cake Graphics:
1034-K Auntie Daisy enjoys freedom
Isn't she fab, I know quite a few people she reminds me of!

I coloured her with watercolour pencils, and then paperpieced her dress and added a touch of sparkle to her flowers.  Simon Says Stamp sentiment die.  I found this pink card candy in my stash that was a great match.  Not sure of make of flower die.  I also managed to use up some of my gold peel off lines :)

Monday 18 April 2016

Lavender and peach flowers

OK, so I didn't quite manage to mix a peach colour with my water colours, but maybe it's near enough?
And I know I'd said no more sympathy cards for a while, but when I was ready to stamp a sentiment on this one 'Thinking of You' seemed to be the most appropriate!

Simon Says Stamp flower stamps - not fussed on my colouring, kinda wish I'd stuck with my pencils.
I added some clear gloss and glitter to the flower centres, so its nice and sparkly but doesn't show up in my pic.  I masked off my flowers to splatter the BG and then doodled a border.

ETA: I wasn't happy at all with my colouring on these flowers so I got my watercolour pencils out and added a bit more detail ... I think it looks better now!

Sunday 17 April 2016

Bunnies and roses

I don't think I've tried this masking/chalking effect before ... this one was inspired by this week's featured stamper over at Splitcoast - Here's Barbara's original.

I used Brewster Bunny from Eat Cake Graphics -  coloured with watercolour pencils and clear gloss and glitter added to his bobble tail..  Blingy sequins from Taylored Expressions.  Doodled border.

My second card uses up some leftovers - great to find a sketch that was perfect for it!

Image from Lili of the Valley - coloured with watercolour pencils and Spectrum Noir sparkle added to the flowers.  Pink sequins and some mini gems to finish.

Saturday 16 April 2016

Pretty in pink

We had a {mostly} bright and breezy day today (interspersed with sleet and hail!), and I was inspired to get on with my Spring cleaning and am feeling dead pleased with myself now and less guilty about my crafty time ;)

My first card uses more of this fab DP from Taylored Expressions, and my cute kitty stamp from Eat Cake Graphics ...
1013-G Gwen and her kitties
Coloured with watercolour pencils.  Clear gloss and glitter added to my heart stamp (from The Alley Way Stamps) and sentiment from Paper Smooches.  I also chalked in some light clouds in the BG but they haven't really shown up in my pic.

I reckon I've enough sympathy cards in my stash now, so hopefully this will do me for a while!
I watercoloured a piece of paper and then inlaid my floral dies.  I hadn't quite thought it out enough to keep the little bits that were cut off the side safe, so there was quite a bit of rooting through my scraps to finish this one!!
I added some Spectrum Noir sparkle to the flowers and clear gloss and glitter to the flower centres.

We had a busy day in the garden too, with lots of visitors to the garden.  This wee robin is a regular visitor.










And the sparrows are always great at bath time ... they're game though, last thing I'd want on a freezing cold day would be a freshwater bath!
If you zoom in you'll see the water going everywhere! 

Friday 15 April 2016

Sparkly Primroses

Brrrr it's a cold day out there, the North wind always makes our house feel chilly.  On the plus side it was a great drying day on the washing line, though on the minus side there's that pile of ironing ... think I can probably ignore it for another day or two before it topples ;)

My card today uses an ooooooold stamp that I bought years ago at the Belfast craft show thinking it would be good for a sympathy card and then really struggled to use it.  I've coloured my image with watercolours, and then decoupaged them (haven't done that for ages either!)  Added Spectrum Noir sparkle to the flowers and clear gloss to the swirls and then doodled a border to match the image.  I like how it turned out, so hopefully I'll not be leaving it so long before inking again!

Wednesday 13 April 2016

Sympathy cards

I was asked to make a few sympathy cards, so thought I'd start with my 'go to' sympathy flowers from Whipper Snapper.

For my first card, I coloured my flowers with watercolour pencils. I had a little tiny snippet left of this dotty DP, so used it to paper piece a couple of flowers.  Clear bling added for a bit of sparkle.

For my second card I again used my watercolour pencils, but also added some Spectrum Noir sparkle to the flowers and clear gloss to the jar.
Dienamics stitched rectangle and also scribble dies.

Sunday 10 April 2016

Furry friends

A beautiful sunny day today, and I spent all afternoon ..... hemming my kitchen curtains :(  Its a job that's been bugging me for, oooh, maybe 5 years and today was their big day!  Hurrah for me ;)

I managed to squeeze in a couple of quickie cards too.  My first one uses an oldie High Hopes bunny and some of my rediscovered flower soft.  I don't think I've ever used the heather coloured stuff before.
Bunny coloured with watercolour pencils and Spectrum Noir sparkle added to the tulips.  I was a bit stumped by the sketch as I couldn't find a thank you sentiment to fit, so I used just a peel off and stuck it over all 3 layers. Taylored Expressions DP.



    I always seem to lack some masculine birthday cards in my stash, so I've used one of my Katzelkraft dogs for this one.  I heat embossed my dog and the sentiment.  Background watercoloured. 

    Saturday 9 April 2016

    A mouse sextet

    I'm gonna have to get this Taylored Expressions DP off my table, or I won't have any left at this rate!  Though maybe it's not actually a bad thing and then it won't go into the 'too good to use' pile ;)

    I thought this sketch would be a good one to show off my little mouse from Eat Cake Graphics ...
    5039-C Daisy Mouse
    Coloured with watercolour pencils.  Paper Smooches heart die.  Bit of bling and some doodling and that's it really!

    Friday 8 April 2016

    Somewhere over the rainbow

    Naughty or Nice have an over the rainbow challenge this month and a DT call too, so I thought I'd have a go!

    Debby Hughes had a fab watercolouring tutorial over on her blog today, if you fancy having a go with watercolours I'd definitely recommend it.   I used red, blue,green, yellow, orange and purple - think I could have been a wee bit braver with the depth of my colours, it turned out more pastel than I'd planned but I do like it :)
    I also added some Spectrum Noir sparkle to the petals, clear gloss to the flower centres and some sequins and bling to finish.

    My 2nd rainbow card uses this gorgeous DP from Taylored Expressions :)
    Stamp from Lili of the Valley - coloured with watercolour pencils.  Silver sentiment sticker and silver sequins and bling from stash.  Nice and simple!

    Thursday 7 April 2016

    To the moon and back

    When there's a programme on about the solar system or black holes or the expanding universe I'm always glued to it.  I usually only understand it for the first 10 minutes and then my brain just explodes and I've no idea what they're on about.  Still find it fascinating though!  And I must confess to giving Tim Peake a wee wave every time I see the space station pass over ;) ... I wonder if he's ever seen a dude like this when he points his camera the other way!

    My little alien is from High Hopes - coloured with watercolour pencils and clear gloss added to his eyes.  Dienamics wonky stitched circles die - then embossed with an old sizzix folder.  Black card splattered with white paint.  Silver and red stars from stash.

    Wednesday 6 April 2016

    Double take?

    Brrrrrr ... we've had every weather going today, rain, sun, drizzle, thunder, sleet, snow and a wind that would cut the face off you!  Did I think Spring was on it's way a few weeks ago? LOL

    My cards this evening are a bit of a take 2 of yesterdays!  A friend in work saw my giraffe baby card and wanted one for her daughter who loves giraffes, and then I had to make another thank you card for a wee gardening group.

    Card 1 - Giraffe stamp from Whipper Snapper - coloured with watercolour pencils.  Background giraffe print stencil coloured with pink chalks.  Sentiment/alpha set from Paper Smooches.  Taylored Expressions sequins.

    Card 2 uses my Penny Black stamp again - coloured with watercolour pencils and clear gloss/glitter added to the snail's shell.

    Tuesday 5 April 2016

    Baby Teddy Flynn

    This is for a colleague in work who had the most beautiful baby boy at the weekend.  Couldn't get a decent pic of it though ... I'd stencilled a giraffe pattern in the BG in pale blue, but it hasn't really shown up in my photo :(

    Giraffe stamp from Whipper Snapper - coloured with watercolour pencils.  Paper Smooches alpha set.  Doodled border.  Nice and quick!
    Oh and I'm lovin my new DP from Taylored Expressions, I'm gonna need another pack soon at the rate I'm going through it!

    Try Stampin on Tuesday #265 DT Card

    So this is the new sketch for Try Stampin on Tuesday #265, and there's an optional theme of 'Spring is Here' ...  Hope you'll play along!

    I flipped the sketch and used this cutie from Eat Cake Graphics ...
    1135-M Abundance (MMM-Butterflies)
    Coloured with watercolour pencils.  Clear gloss and glitter added to the butterflies.  I mounted my clouds (Lawn Fawn dies) on darker cardstock to match the frame round my image.