Birthday balloons

While I was having my distress oxide inks out this afternoon to create a rainbow panel for my previous card, I thought it would be fun to do a spin on the rainbow theme by splattering each of the colours and drying in between to create rainbow confetti. Next, I carefully spritzed with water in a few places to give a more blended look in some parts, and then die cut several balloons in varying sizes from the Balloons die set by Simon Says Stamp.

Before I adhered the balloons to my soft grey card (Papertrey Ink), I blended a little Tumbled glass DI around the edges and tied some embroidery thread at the base of each balloon. I foam mounted the largest balloon as well as the sentiment strip (Label love, Altenew).

Challenges:

AAA Cards - #95 Rainbow

CASology - #259 Balloons for CASology's 5th Anniversary

Seize the Birthday - Birthday with the option of Splatter

ATSM - #252 Make your mark

HLS - Anything goes with dies

Let's party!

Hello and welcome! Today, I've been playing with my distress oxide inks. I used them to create a rainbow panel, from which I die cut a large balloon (Balloons, SSS) to fill up most of my soft grey cardbase (Papertry Ink). I left a blank space in the bottom right corner, so that I could stamp my sentiment (Birthday Balloons, SSS). To finish off, I tied some embroidery thread around the base of my balloon and stamped a few of the stars from the same stamp set onto the balloon.

Challenges:

AAA Cards - #95 Rainbow

CASology - #259 Balloons for CASology's 5th Anniversary

Seize the Birthday - Birthday with the option of splatter

ATSM - #252 Make your mark

HLS - Anything goes with dies

Pearlescent roses

While I was playing in my craftroom this afternoon, I decided I might just as well create another card using the rose panel I had stamped and painted back in May, using another technique from the Altenew watercolour class. After stamping the rose panel (Winnie & Walter, Mini Scenery: Bed of Rosed) in Pearl silver embossing powder (Ranger), I added my colours using Altenew inks and water with Perfect pearls (Ranger).

I decided I wanted to let my roses be the star of my card, so I timmed my panel down and adhered it to the bottom corner of my white cardbase and used Worn Lipstick distress oxide ink to stamp my sentiment (Hero Arts, Everyday Sayings).

I'm linking up my card at:

ABNH - Florals

ATSM -  #252 Make your mark

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

One panel, two cards

I was determined to play along at A Blog Named Hero this month. I finished work early today, and managed to create two cards using one background panel.

The card above is actually the card that I created with the left-overs from my original card (below), but the CAS look is really making me happy! Sigh! All I did was adhering my die cut sentiment (Winnie & Walter) to a white panel that I had cut using my favourite stitched rectangle die (SSS) and adding a few strips that I was left with after trimming down my panel for the card below. I stacked the panel with another die cut panel before adhering it to my cardbase and added a few sequins (Pretty Pink Post, Sharing Kindness mix) to finish off.

For my original card below, I started by stamping the Hero Arts Lotus background stamp in distress oxide ink (Broken china) and then heat embossing in clear (HA) embossing powder. I then blended two colours of distress ink (Twisted citron and Tumbled glass) before trimming down the panel and die cutting the Hello sentiment. I also die cut the sentiment from blue Core'dination cardstock and glued it into the aperture before adhering 2 stacked die cuts with a thread nest on top, making sure to leave a slight blue shadow at the top.

I also finished off this card with a few PPP sequins.

I'm linking up both cards at:

ABNH - Florals

Winnie & Walter July Colour Combo with Heather H.

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

No stamping Christmas

Hello and welcome! Just popping in with my card for this week's LIM challenge, where we are not allowed to use any stamps.

This was a great opportunity for me to use some of the items that I had already lying about on my craft table. The square was created last year when I was playing around with an embossing folder that I inked up on the inside before running it through my Cuttlebug with a panel of white cardstock. I trimmed the panel down along the outer rim. The bird (Essentials by Ellen) was die cut from some corrugated cardboard (packaging). I had already added a thin layer of white gesso on top and decided to add a little gold when I had my Inca Gold out for another project last week. The Merry (Essentials by Ellen) sentiment was die cut from gold glitter cardstock (Marianne Design). I adhered everything to a square cardbase (approx. 5½ x 5½ inches).

Challenges:

LIM - #338 Anything but stamps

HLS - July anything goes with dies

HLS Christmas - Anything goes (option: die cuts)

Merry Monday - Christmas in July summer link-up

(#250 - Rustic)

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

Merry Everything

Hello again! I was determined to play along with the fun sketch challenge at the Seven Hills Crafts blog and I made it in the nick of time.

I started by die cutting my panel using 2 stitched rectangle dies by SSS and blending a little Sea glass ink (SSS) on my cardbase. For the garland, I blended distress oxide inks onto a piece of scrap cardstock, spritzed with water and blotted with a paper towel, before die cutting the garland by Reverse Confetti. The sweet girl (Jingle all the way, MFT) was coloured with coloured pencils (Spectrum Noir), fussy cut and then foam mounted onto my card. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

Below is the sketch from the Seven Hills Crafts blog that kick-started my design:

I'm also playing along at:

CAS on Friday - #112 Primary colours

ATSM - #252 Make your mark

CWS - #16 Celebrate

Roses, embossing paste and gelatos

Here's another card that had been waiting patiently to be finished off with a sentiment. I finally settled on a simple black sentiment strip using Altenew's Label love set and foam mounted it with a silver thread nest. This way, I did not have to cover up much of those pretty roses.

I started out with a panel of watercolour card that already had a touch of pink from some left-over distress ink after doing some ink smooshing for another project. Through a stencil (Old Rose Prints, Artplorations), I applied transluscent embossing paste (Dreamweaver) that I had mixed on my craft mat with three colours of metallic gelatos. While the embossing paste was still wet, I sprinkled a little sparkling embossing powder (Wanderlust by WOW, created especially for the latest SOA collection by Catherine Pooler). Because I did not heat set it right away, much of the embossing powder blew off when I finally did try to heat set the powder, but the little powder that did melt gives a lovely subtle sparkle in real life. 

Challenges:

The Flower Challenge - #10 Embossing (heat/dry)

STAMPlorations Never-ending Anything goes challenge

More Mixed Media - Anything goes (option: pastel)

HLS Mixed Media - Texture

Tissue paper, watercolour and lots of butterflies

Right now, I'm feeling like a butterfly myself, popping in and out and in again with yet another card.

Some of you may recognise the butterfly cover plate die by Papertrey Ink that I used for my winning entry into April's CAS Mix Up challenge. It seemed only fitting that I used it again (but this time in its entirety) for this month's CAS Watercolour challenge, which is calling for butterflies and watercolouring and the CAS Mix Up challenge, which is calling for tissue paper, stamping plus one (I chose watercolouring and die cutting).

To create my colourful background, I used the technique from Loll's video tutorial by applying distress ink onto my craft mat, spraying with water and then putting my tissue paper on top. When my tissue paper was dry, I sandwiched it between my die cut butterfly panel and another white panel using Tombow mono multi glue before adhering this sandwich to my cardbase.

Challenges:

CAS Mix Up

CAS Watercolour 

Virginia's Summer link-up party

HLS Watercolour 

HLS  Anything goes with dies

Brushos and butterflies

I'm popping back in with another quick post with a card I created for this month's CAS Watercolour challenge and this week's LIM challenge.

Ingredients:

Watercoloured panel that I created last year while experimenting with brushos

Concentric Circles die (Neat and Tangled) to cut out my frame

Sparkle die (Essentials by Ellen)

Butterfly die (Die'sire) and vellum

Inca Gold (Copper) applied with my finger on the raised parts of the die cut 

(through the apertures in the die) and on the die cut sentiment. I then added Versamark using a Versamark marker en heat embossed using Judikins irridescent glitter embossing powder

Challenges:

CAS Watercolour - Butterfly

LIM - #338 No stamps

Altenew flower

Here's a card that has been sitting on my desk in a semi finished state for quite a while. I started it when my sister was visiting back in May and we were trying out one of the techniques from the Altenew watercolour class, painting wet in wet using reinkers.

After heat embossing the Altenwe flower (Amazing you) in gold embossing powder, I coloured the image using Ranger distress reinkers. After I had finished, I still had a lot of reinker left on my craft mat, so I decided to use this to paint another panel of watercolour cardstock for future use. I ended up using a strip of this panel behind my popped up flower panel. To finish off, I stamped the Hello sentiment in black Archival ink and sprinkled a few gold sequins for some added sparkle.

Challenges:

The Flower Challenge - #10 Embossing (heat/dry)

ATSM - #251 Anything goes

Stamping Sensations - Anything with flowers 

Christmas in July 3 - Mixed Media

I managed to create one more card today, using a previously created watercard panel with two pine cones that I had actually created for last month's CAS Mix Up challenge using a stencil and embossing paste.

Since the embossing paste acts as a resist, I decided to create my background using my Distress Oxide inks. Once my background was dry, I picked up some pale gold paint with a paint brush and splattered in onto my panel. For the sentiment, I used a previously die cut I had laying around and matted my panel first onto dark blue cardstock and then onto my red card base.

Challenges:

Bugaboo Christmas in July Day 1

CCC - #17 Anything Christmas goes (optional photo inspiration)

CCAYR - Anything Christmas goes

Christmas in July 2 - 3 cute cards

I have been doing some colouring this week. I have a feeling I'm overcoming my fear of colouring. Instead of worrying which colours to use, I just grabbed a few markers and went to work. What's more, I'm loving the results!

My first card uses this cute elf by Bugaboo and was coloured using a selection of Promarkers and 1 or 2 Flexmarkers. I coloured the background using a light blue marker and then dabbed using a rag with a little rubbing alcohol. I also added a few extra dots using a blender pen.

Challenges:

Bugaboo Christmas in July Day 3

Passion for Promarkers - #404 Bright colours

I love Promarkers - #339 Anything goes

ABC Christmas - O = for Old (all supplies are old)

CCAYR - Anything Christmas goes

Colour Crazy - Anything goes

Polkadoodles - #28 Anything goes

The Cutie Pie - #113 Here come the girls

CCC - #17 Anything Christmas goes (optional photo inspiration)

For my second card, I used this cute cat trio by Bugaboo, which I coloured using Copics and some Promarkers. 

Challenges:

Bugaboo Christmas in July Day 2

ABC Christmas - O = for Old (all supplies are old)

CCAYR - Anything Christmas goes

Aud Sentiments -  #184 Christmas in July + sentiment

Winter Wonderland - Use a digi image

ATSM - #251 Anything goes

For my third card, I used this week's Friday Freebie by Bugaboo, which I printed onto kraft cardstock and coloured in using coloured pencils (Spectrum Noir). Instead of looking through my stash to try and find a fun sentiment matching the quirky image, I simply jotted down HO² (after all, there's only 2 critters) using a black Sharpie. I added sparkle to the bells using a silver gel pen and added dimension using glossy accents. I added a few red stars for some added sparkle and an extra pop of colour.

Challenges:

Bugaboo Christmas in July Day 7

ABC Christmas - O = for Old (all except digi) & N = for New (digi)

CCAYR - Anything Christmas goes

Colour Crazy -  Anything goes

Kleuren met potloden - Alles mag/Anything goes

Winter Wonderland - Use a digi image

I'm also linking up all three cards at the 

Christmas inspiration linky at Nancy's blog

She is doing a Christmas in July series and is inviting

 us to join in with our own Christmas in July creations.