Sympathy cards

Well it's been a typical Bank Holiday, showery and damp.  Ah well, at least it will be a short week in work :)

I always seem to have a need for sympathy cards, so made a couple of quickies this evening.
This first one uses an oldie from Taylored Expressions.  Coloured with polychromos and clear gloss added to the little pink flowers.  Not sure of the make of embossing folder - it was a magazine freebie.

• Less is More #396 - embossing
• Love to Scrap #121 - anything goes
• Crafty Creations #391 - anything goes

This one uses another oldie, from Papermania.  It rarely sees ink as it's one of those stamps that I find difficult to use! 

If I was remaking this I'd use a different sentiment stamp, this one's a wee bit big.  Oh and I hadn't quite intended to use the gems but I dropped my pencil and left a mark that wouldn't be erased.

• Simon Says Stamp Monday - frame it
• Creative Inspirations May flowers

Baby girl and birdies

Just a couple of quickies from me tonight.  Well, when I say quick, this baby card ended up looking nothing like what it was supposed to!  I'd used a different sentiment, didn't like it so used this Congrats die instead.  And that meant that the image I'd originally coloured and cut out didn't look right so I had to go on the hunt for this little floating bear and colour and cut him instead.  Then I faffed about for a while trying to decide what to put on the background.  And of course I faffed about and changed so much I'm not sure it actually looks like the MFT sketch I started with - I didn't have any of the right shaped dies so I was struggling with this one before I even started!

Bear is an oldie from (now closed) Elzybells.  MFT cloud border die.

• Layout (very loosely!) based on MFT Wednesday Sketch 438
• As You Like It - His or Hers - I much prefer to make female cards, they're definitely way easier to make than masculine ones.  Plus my stash is full of cutie stamps which don't lend well to male cards!
• Moving along with the times #98 - monochrome
• Pixie's Snippets Playground #353 - you'd laugh at the little bit of pink card I had that turned out to be a perfect fit for this sentiment!

This one is for our Caretaker in work who's been off sick for a while and we just wanted to say Hi.

Don't you just love it when you find some DP that's perfect for your image!  It's the little things in life :)

I've used this seagull from an MFT set; Paper Smooches sentiment; and I had my cloud borders still on my table from the previous card so why not use one! Oh and a wave stencil for the bottom from Simon Says Stamp

• Tuesday Throwdown #432 - stencilling
• Simply Create Too #149 - anything goes
• CRAFT #514 - male

Baby girl and Birthday cake

We've another nice long weekend again, though I always think we could kinda do without the Bank Holiday at the start of May and shift it to later in the year!  Hopefully the weather wises up a bit, it's been a dark damp old day.

Good crafting day though! We've a few babies due in work, so I need to get a few cards made.  This one uses my new Stamping Bella baby - coloured with polychromos and popped up on foam pads.  I've stencilled in some pink bricks to the background but they don't show up well in my pic.

• General design from Inspired By challenge - welcome
• Simon Says Stamp Monday - stencils
• Addicted to Stamps #342 - make your mark
• Tuesday Throwdown #432 - stenciling

This one I thought might do for a bloke, it's not easy to make 'masculine' cards when you've a box full of cutsey stamps!!

Stamp from Penny Black - coloured with polychromos and some sparkle added to the icing.

• Layout from Freshly Made #389
• Allsorts #520/1 - Happy Birthday
• Cute Card Thursday #583 - square
• Penny Black Saturday May - anything goes

Birdies and birthday cake

I've hardly any 'blokey' cards in my stash, so here's a couple of quickies to try to rectify that.
I always love to use this oldie Whipper Snapper stamp, those little birdies give me a good giggle.  I've fussy cut them for this one and popped up on foam pads, and then added some gloss and glitter for a bit of sparkle.

• AAA Cards #140 - up to one third
• CASology #343 - colour
• Watercooler Wednesday #221 - masculine

This one didn't end up as butch as I'd hoped, reckon I should have went with a darker base.

My cake is a Gummiapan stamp - coloured with polychromos, sparkle added to the icing and clear gloss/glitter to the little stars.  I hadn't intended to have my border like that, but my white pen is a bit dodgy and decided to leave a big blob, so I just made a feature of it! 

• AAA Birthday #1 - anything birthday
• Crafty Creations #390 - anything goes
• The Male Room #111 - anything goes
• 
  

New goodies

I've been led astray yet again by my bloggy buddy DottyJo.  You'd think I'd have developed a bit of willpower by now! Ha!   If you've more resistance than me you should pop over to see her fab creations :)

So the object of my desires was this little dude she had used from Purple Onion Designs.  I've coloured him with polychromo pencils and added a bit of sparkle to his bauble and the snow.  Paper Smooches snowflake dies; not sure of the make of the sentiment.

• Layout from CAS(e) This Sketch #322
• Crafting by Designs May - anything goes
• Christmas with the Cuties #26 - feature a creature

And this sweet little tree was my other purchase, I fear there may be others when my crafting budget recovers, I've been a bit spend-happy recently haha.  

The very first, and only, real Christmas tree me and Greg had was a bit like this!  We only had a little apartment and the space for the tree had a sloping roof, so we had to cut a whack off the bottom and then some off the top too to get it wedged in.  And then after Christmas I dragged it down 4 or 5 flights of stairs and then dragged the hoover down to vacuum up all the pine needles!!  I bought a fake tree after that LOL

• Addicted to CAS #159 - horizon
• Creative Knockouts #298 - fave embellishment - mine's definitely gemstones, I've used a load of little tiny ones on my tree
• Addicted to Stamps #341 - anything goes

Blue hair!

uggh Sunday evening already, weekend time definitely goes quicker than it should!  It was a lovely sunny bright day and I got some of my pots tidied and a bit of planting done.  Still plenty more to do though!

I've been practising my colouring again and had a look today at a few hair tutorials -  I would never have thought of using dark blue in her hair!  I think I need to invest in a few more browny shades though, my little dog ended up looking a wee bit samey.

Things I learned in this card ... stamp your sentiment BEFORE sticking down the image!  I'd masked off my sentiment so that it could go on two lines, but it's quite sticky and when I stamped the 'thank' the stickiness of the 'you' bit took off some of my pencil work and it needed a bit of a fix.  Grrr.

• Layout from CAS(e) this sketch #321
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - for a special lady
• Crafting by Designs - girls
• Just Us girls #487 - bold letters

Here's a peek of my practice book.  I had been just using it as a record for blending colours but find it more useful to have a go at colouring actual stamped images.  I need lots more practice so I know I'm going to use this loads.

• As You Like It - favourite non-card project

Going for Gold

A couple of 'quick' cards this evening.  Well, when I say 'quick' ..... both cards I ended up taking apart and spending waaaaay more time than they should have taken!
I've been watching polychromo tutorials again, so tonight's theme is colouring Gold!

This first one I'd put my bunny in a pink circle, stuck everything down and then decided it just didn't work.  Luckily my bunny had been stuck with foam pads, so I just had to get my craft knife in under to scrape them off!

Bunny is an oldie from Stamping Bella that I bought in their sale and think I've stamped once.  Coloured with polychromos.

• Layout from Sketch Saturday #563
• Through the Craft Room Door - anything goes
• Pile it On #154 - beverage

And this one I'd originally had my central panel in white, decided it wasn't right and needed a bit of colour, and things got a bit messy in the dismantling process -  I had originally planned to have my bunny a bit higher up but his butt is covering a big ripped bit!  

Bunny and bear from an old MFT set; gold stars from stash.

• Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch Club #436
• Time Out #135 - stars

Butterflies and critters

Well that was a bit of an icky damp dark old day.  Every time we thought we'd take Rubydoo out for a walk it started to rain, and our little princess puts the breaks on if a raindrop hits her nose!  
Good weather for spring cleaning though - I got lots of 'silly' stuff done that doesn't quite fit in to my normal cleaning routine.  And it cleared my conscience for some crafting this afternoon so I didn't feel one bit guilty using my day off work to colour in and faff about hahaha.

This first card uses an oldie from Eat Cake Graphics.  Hopefully we get more butterflies visiting our garden than last year, they were definitely few and far between.
I usually just colour my butterflies all the same shade, but Mr Google kindly supplied some pics of beautiful butterflies to inspire me.  I've added a Gumiapan butterly die and little punched ones too.  If I was making this card again I'd flip my base and have the darker shade for the frame.

• Stamp Ink Paper #198 - wings of wonder
• Make My Monday #95 - wings
• Your Next Stamp Fun Friday #113 - how does your garden grow
• Tuesday Throwdown #431 - frame it

So for the rest of the afternoon I went YouTube-ing to look at polychromo tutorials and found a couple on skin and hair colouring.  So this little LOTV girl was the result.  I need lots more practice - she has a bit of a 5-o'clock shadow thing going on there ;)

I added in a little metal heart and red metallic embellishments.  Clear gloss to their noses and glitter to the girl's hair baubles.  Elizabeth Craft square dies and (I think) Gumiapan sentiment die.

• Layout from Die Cuttin Divas #419
• Simon Says Stamp - Work it Wednesday April - pet project

New Goodies

Just a quick visit tonight, it's the big finale of Line of Duty and I can't wait to find out what happens.  They better reveal whodunnit or I'll be a bit P'd off if they drag it out to another series!!

Anyway, here's some more of my new Stamping Bella goodies.

This little bunny and his bear is an absolute sweetie - coloured with polychromos and some sparkle added to the white strips on his hat and glitter to his bauble.  Gummiapan flower die.

• Layout from AAA Cards #139
• Addicted to CAS #158 - contrast
• Die Cuttin Divas #418 - anything goes

I got my watercolour pencils out for a change for this one. Sparkle added to the carol sheet and glitter to their baubles.  I think I'll add in a few enamel dots for falling snow, it needs a wee something.

• Layout from Power Poppy
• CHNC #436 - any Xmas
• 
  

Baby Blooms

I've been kinda spoiled just recently with time off from work with the Easter holidays and now the Bank Holiday weekend ... didn't stop me booking off Tuesday too though, so I've a lovely looooooong weekend ahead :)

I treated myself to a wee shopping spree recently and this cutie from Stamping Bella fell into my shopping basket.  We've a few babies due in work shortly so I thought I'd get ahead of the game.
Coloured with polychromos and I added a dot of clear gloss and glitter to the centre of the flowers for a little bit of sparkle.

• Layout from Tuesday Morning Sketches #501
• Creative with Stamps #38 - Baby
• Love to Scrap #121 - anything goes
• Your Next Stamp #113 - how does your garden grow