Taking a little break

Hello lovelies,

I have a post going live tomorrow for House of Cards but after that I am planning on take a few days away from my blog.

My wee dog Eddy has been ill for the past two weeks and things really came to a head yesterday and today.  The poor thing had some sort of really rare and very aggressive cancer.  I am sure I don't need to say any more now.

Take care lovelies xx

Africa part four ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well.  I have another African theme card to share with you and here it is …

A 150mm square card

Okay to post and I didn't realise the leaves would nearly blend into the card!

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Country View Crafts Challenge September Travel

Deep Ocean Challenge #138 Anything Goes

Fussy & Fancy Friday’s Challenge #173 My Favourite Things:

Dies, stamps & watercolours

Inky Chicks Challenge Animals 

Scrapy Land Challenge #50 Birthday

I used Crafters Companion and Whimsy Stamps brands
Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes

Spectrum Noir Challenge on Facebook Use Kraft 

The Pencil Case Challenge #29 Anything Goes

Because the first time I used this stamp I thought about how I was going to colour him.  So I was able to use both my practice piece (this one) and this lion card and unusually I was able to create another male birthday card for our box.  I stamped both of the lions and then coloured the scenes behind.  I coloured the lion with a base layer of light brown then went in back in with some yellow, orange and darker brown pencil to add shade and texture to his fur and his mane.  I also went back in after the lion had dried to add a darker patch of grass beneath him so that he has a lovely shadow.  The die cuts were all snippets of leftovers or experiments and there is no girlie shimmer so it will be for a male.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Sheena Douglass A6 A Little Bit Sketchy: Roar stamp set

Crafters Companion Inspiration Magazine Issue 11clear leaf stamps

Stencil:

Tim Holtz layering stencil: lines

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Whimsy Stamps: Sentimentals Birthday die set

Crafters Companion Inspiration Magazine Issue 11 clear leaf stamps

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; paintbrushes; water pot; trimmer; sponge

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion: Sheena Douglass A4 stamping card; Kraft card

Snippet pearl card from my stash

Patterned paper from my stash

Snippets white card that had been coloured were used for die cutting then stamping the leaves

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Bright & Beautiful

Set 1 Colorista pencils

Stazon Solvent Midi IP: Ganache

Pebeo Dyna Iridescent Orange/Yellow

Adhesives/Mediums:

Collall all purpose glue; fun foam; double sided tape

Africa part three ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well.   I have another African scene that didn’t turn work so well to share with you today.  I had to cut my landscape panel up to be able to create this card.  This time I made sure that there were no large elephants on top of the Marula trees foliage (aka Sclerocarya Birrea).  I have to admit up front that I hadn’t noticed that there were three elephants in the tree yesterday and the comment that the lovely Dionne left me really made me chortle.  Three large elephants standing on the top of a tree in Africa and that must have been on strong tree lol!  Anyways here is my card …

A 150mm square card

Good to post

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Country View Crafts Challenge September Travel

Creative with Stamps Challenge #6
Fussy & Fancy Friday’s Challenge #173 My Favourite Things:

Stamps, watercolours and learning/trying different techniques
Inky Chicks Challenge Animals 

Make My Monday Challenge #31 No Patterned Paper

Pixie’s Snippets Playground #248: the inked and stamped landscape

Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes

Spectrum Noir Challenge on Facebook Use Kraft 

The error was, luckily for me, a big splash of water on my card stock which when working with AquaTints or Distress inks is nearly impossible to hide, believe me I know that because I have tried lol!  Because it was so small I grabbed some of the larger peel offs and some more Kraft card, which I am obsessed with right now!  I am hoping to play more with these stamps next month as right now I love these images and of course these colours too.

In the interests of being completely honest I was dreading finding a way to use some peel offs in what I create these days.  But I have changed my mind, oh my!!  I love the background I created with them and maybe therein lies an idea for me to mull on and to try again.  Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Sheena Douglass A6 A Little Bit Sketchy: African Landscape stamp set

Miscellaneous Tools:                    

MISTI; paintbrushes; water pot; trimmer

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion: Sheena Douglass A4 stamping card; Kraft card

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Bright & Beautiful

Versafine IP: black

Adhesives/Mediums:

Collall all purpose glue; fun foam; double sided tape

Travel to Africa part two ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well.  Well so much for being happy with my first play with the lion stamp!  Today’s card is smaller than planned and has only a little stamping and here it is …

An A6 card

Good for posting too

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Country View Crafts Challenge September Travel

Crafty Boots Challenge Autumn/Fall

Fussy & Fancy Friday’s Challenge #173 My Favourite Things 
Stamps, watercolours and learning/trying different techniques

Love to Scrap Challenge LTSCB#86 Anything Goes

Make My Monday Challenge #31 No Patterned Paper

Spectrum Noir Challenge on Facebook Use Kraft 

Stamping Sensations Challenge September For the Boys

Grr, I should know better than to even say that in my head let alone share that thought with anyone.  So I grabbed another of this set of stamps to stamp the lion and then to mask the lion before stamping the rest of the scene.  All of that part went well.  What didn’t go well was my colouring of said lion and then the scene.  It all very nearly ended up being recycled.  I realised that I had got over excited and not followed the steps that I have learnt from the Colorista course.  So I moved this bad piece to one side so that I could restart.  The next day I stamped and coloured just the lion again and it worked beautifully (you will see him again on the 30^th).  I was just about to bin this piece when I realised that I could use the top part of the scene so I trimmed it up and whilst searching for things to use with it I remembered these really very old peel offs!   

The peel offs are on my desk right now because I was going to try and slip them in the bin when the OH wasn’t watching but he knew that and he has challenged me to try to use them in my creations before just sending them to the great recycler in the sky.  I’m not happy about it because I’m stubborn and him daring me like that well let’s just say peel offs will occur every now and then on my blog and that is something I never thought I would ever say!

I grabbed a snippet of Kraft card and stuck them on and coloured them with my AquaTints.  Peel offs don’t rock my boat any more but they were perfect for this snippet and I just had to lol!  Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Sheena Douglass A6 A Little Bit Sketchy: African Landscape stamp set

Miscellaneous Tools:                    

MISTI; paintbrushes; water pot; trimmer

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion: Sheena Douglass A4 stamping card; Kraft card

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Bright & Beautiful

Versafine IP: black

Adhesives/Mediums:

Collall all purpose glue; fun foam; double sided tape

Travel to Africa ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your weekend was a good one and your week has started well.  I’ve mentioned before that I have put craft stuff in a safe place and it has taken me ages to find them again, well that is the case with these stamps too.  I finally re-located these stamps over the weekend and I grabbed my MISTI, different card stocks, dies, stamps, AquaTints and got to play and here is my first attempt …

 

An A5 male birthday card

He is a handsome beastie

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Country View Crafts Challenge September Travel

Die Cut Diva’s Challenge Autumn/Autumn Celebrations

Fussy & Fancy Friday’s Challenge #173 My Favourite Things:

Stamps, dies & watercolours

 Rubber Dance Art Stamps Challenge September 2nd Anniversary:

Inspired by the October 2015 board

Scrapy Land Challenge #50 Birthday

I used Crafters Companion and Whimsy Stamps brands of dies

Spectrum Noir Challenge on Facebook Use Kraft 

Stamping Sensations Challenge September For the Boys

I hope you like him, he is glorious to stamp and to watercolour and it’ll only be a couple of days until you see him again.  I loved creating this card and unusually there are no but I made this mistake or but this didn’t come out so well.  A rare but nice thing for me to completely like my finished result with a new stamp and I am happy to take it.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Sheena Douglass A6 A Little Bit Sketchy: Roar stamp set

Crafters Companion Inspiration Magazine Issue 11clear leaf stamps

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Winnie & Walter: happy die

Whimsy Stamps: Sentimentals Birthday die set

Crafters Companion Inspiration Magazine Issue 11 clear leaf stamps

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; paintbrushes; water pot; trimmer

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion: Sheena Douglass A4 stamping card; Kraft card

Snippet pearl card from my stash

Patterned paper from my stash

Snippets white card that had been coloured were used for die cutting then stamping the leaves

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Bright & Beautiful

Stazon Solvent Midi IP: Ganache

Adhesives/Mediums:

Collall all purpose glue; fun foam; double sided tape

Snippety Wings and Flowers ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week was a good one and you have awesome weekend plans.  I am still trying to shrink my snippets pile in between wedding invitations and I’m hoping this weekend I’ll get the final sign off so I can order the supplies and get to cutting and sticking!  So here is today’s snippety card …

A little C6 card

I had to show the side view separately because I captured the shimmer!!!

I had to show it again, lol, the shimmer is beautiful and from a clear Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges
 Deep Ocean Challenge #138 Anything Goes

Die Cuttin’ Divas Challenge #28 Birthday
Fashionable Stamping Challenge Use Autumnal Colours

Fussy & Fancy Friday’s Challenge #173 My Favourite Things: 

 butterflies, stamps, & watercolours

Paperbabe Stamps Challenge #42 Wings

Scrapy Land Challenge #50 Birthday: I used Crafters Companion dies

Spectrum Noir Challenge on Facebook Use Kraft: the leaves

The Pencil Case Challenge #28 Anything Goes

The Ribbon Girl Challenge September Any Image Any Project 

Lots of pearl card snippets, Kraft card snippets and Sheena Douglass card snippets were used to create this card.  I experimented on some Kraft card snippets using my Tim Holtz stencil and Pebeo Dyna paints – love those paints they have lovely shimmer.  I die cut the flowers from card that I had coloured with H2O paints.  The border, the die cut and stamped butterflies were snippets from playing with my Spectrum Noir AquaTints.  After I stamped the butterflies onto AquaTints I fussy cut them and attached them to the C6 card with Washi tape before stamping the body and antenna with black Versafine IP.  I removed the butterflies and then stamped the hearts and sentiment using a Distress IP.  I added the butterflies and attached their bodies to the card and then curled them with my fingers so that they aren’t completely flat.  I had a last snippet of rainbow card which I glued in position and added the ribbon at the top and bottom.  I then played around with the die cuts and once happy with the position I glued them in place simples yet fun to do.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Paperbabe Stamps: Pieridae butterfly set

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Sara Douglass Signature Collection:  Butterfly Lullaby Flit & Flutter die set

Marianne Design Dies: LR027 Anja Leaves 2

Joy Crafts: 6002/0024 Daisy Flower die set; 6002/0025 Flowers die set

Stencil:

Tim Holtz THS004 Lines Stripes

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; paintbrushes; water pot

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion Sheena Douglass A4 stamping card snippets

300 gsm card

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Beautifully Grunge; Bright & Beautiful

Spectrum Sparkle: clear overlay

Pebeo Studio Acrylic 100ml Dyna: Violet Blue; Green Yellow

Versafine IP: black

Distress IP: Broken China

Embellishments:

Ribbon from my stash

Brads (old from my stash)

Adhesives/Mediums:

Washi tape; Collall all purpose glue

Another spotty toadstool ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your weekend is going well.  I have one of my embellished but not fully embellished cards to share again today.  I have really enjoyed creating this one too and I know part of my enjoyment is using rich colours with new die cuts and really old embellishments too lol!  And here it is …

  

An A6 card

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Inky Chicks Challenge Fairies &/ Wings

Lavinia Stamps Challenge on Facebook Autumn Hues

Pixie’s Snippets Playground #247: all of the die cuts were leftover AquaTints snippets

Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge Inspired by a Song:

I have a slightly eclectic inspiration for you: The Super Mario Brothers Theme Song

Today, full of energy, Mario is still running, running; Go save Princess Peach! Go!;
Today, full of energy, Mario runs; Today, full of energy, jumping!;
Today, full of energy, searching for coins; Today, keep going, Mario!;
Get a mushroom - it’s Super Mario!; Get a flower - it’s Fire Mario!;  

Goomba! Troopa! Buzzy Beetle! Beat them all!

Mario is always full of energy and strong! 

I was really into Super Mario when it first appeared lol!

Spectrum Noir Challenge on Facebook Use Kraft

The Pencil Case Challenge #28 Anything Goes

Not quite so busy or quite so bold today but still much fun to create and I’ve learnt that using Kraft as a base means that I can use the bright bold colours that I love without my project looking garish.  I know, because I have done it in the past; very bright colours with large areas of white do tend to look garish so I am happy I figured that one out lol!  Once again I used my Pebeo masking fluid to protect the toadstools white spots and I die cut then coloured quite a few butterflies, massive understatement!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

 Tools

Stamp:

Lavinia Spotty Toadstool stamp set

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Crafters Companion Sara Davis Signature Collection: Butterfly Lullaby Flit & Flutter die set

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; Tim Holtz Distress tool; paintbrushes; water pot; paint palette

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion: Kraft card; Sheena Douglass stamping card

Papers from my stash

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Beautifully Grunge; Bright & Beautiful

Spectrum Aqua: Nature pen set

Versafine IP: black

Pebeo acrylic paints: red and yellow to create the orange

Embellishments:

Woodware chipboard

Adhesives/Mediums:

Pebeo masking fluid; white gesso; double sided tape; fun foam

Not a card ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your weekend was good.  Another practice attempt with shabby chic and mixed media to share today and it’s not a card either!  Here it is …

  

An A5 canvas with loads of lovely details

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Craft Stamper Challenge September Take It Make It Anything Goes

Creative Artiste Challenge September Anything Goes

Frilly & Funkie Challenge Things with Wings

  Rubber Dance Art Stamps Challenge September 2nd Anniversary:

I was inspired by the October 2015 board

Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge Inspired by a Song: Pretty Wings by Maxwell

Southern Ridge Trading Co. Challenge September Your Favourites

Chipboard; Clay; Dies; Ink; Stamps; Watercolour Paints

 (Acrylics aren’t on my list yet because I’m still learning how to use them)

Spectrum Noir Challenge on Facebook Use Kraft: I die cut the leaves from Kraft card then added colour with AquaTints and once dry I stamped them too

Stamps & Stencils Challenge The Colours of Autumn

Sweet Stampin’ Challenge Anything But A Card 

The Ribbon Girl Challenge September Any Image Any Project

I stamped the flowers and their stems onto white card which I then coloured with my Spectrum Noir AquaTints.  The leaves were die cut from Kraft card and then colour was added to parts of them before I stamped the details.  The background I created on white card which I glued onto a piece of chipboard packaging.  I attached a stencil and added texture paste and once it was dry I used my Distress paints to colour it, spraying with water and then lightly heating to get it to dry.  Some of the butterflies were die cut with white card but the purple ones were die cut with Kraft card snippets before I coloured them with AquaTints.  The branch, large bird and smaller birds were created using air dry clay in a mould.  Once they were dry I coloured them with black gesso before adding the final layer of colour which was Pebeo Dyna iridescent paints (love them so very much!), I also added a little of the Pebeo paint to the spiky flowers to give them the look of dew on the petals.

My OH says it reminds him of a Manga type fairyland scene?!  I really don’t get that idea at all, lol, I see a dark deep forest with beautiful autumnal flowers and fall leaves at ground level.  Birds and butterflies are foraging for as much nutrients as possible before we hit winter and the cold winter months ahead, buy hey it’s all subjective lol!  Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Tim Holtz Flower Garden stamp set

Crafters Companion Inspiration Magazine Issue 11 clear leaf stamps

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Crafters Companion Inspiration Magazine Issue 11 leaf dies

Stencil:

I don’t know the brand of this as it was a gift from the lovely Carol … blog

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; Martha Stewart large bird and branch silicone mould; Cuddly Buddly little birds silicone mould; paintbrushes; heat tool; palette; palette knife

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion: Sheena Douglass A4 stamping card; Kraft card

Recycled Chipboard

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Bright & Beautiful

Pebeo Dyna iridescent acrylic paint: orange yellow; violet blue; blue green

Distress IPs: worn lipstick; wild honey; shabby shutters

Distress paints: bronze; platinum; weathered wood; salty ocean; picked raspberry

Embellishments:

Prima mini flowers

Air dry clay

Lace from my stash

Adhesives/Mediums:

Ranger Matt Texture Paste; Collall all purpose glue; Washi tape (for stencil); double sided tape; fun foam

Colourful snippets ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week was good and you are have fabulous weekend plans.  I have been trying to half my stash of created by me backgrounds, stamped and coloured images and die cuts piles.  I have not through as many as I hoped or planned too, lol, anyways here is today’s card …

  

 

A 148mm square card

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges
Butterfly Challenge #62 Butterflies and L for Lavender

Creative with Stamps Challenge #6

Cuttlebug Mania Challenge September Anything Goes with Die Cuts 

Frilly & Funkie Challenge Things with Wings

Paperbabe Stamps Challenge #42 Wings

Scrapy Land Challenge #49 Anything Goes: I used Crafters Companion dies

Spectrum Noir Challenge on Facebook Use Kraft 

 Virginia’s View Challenge #23 Spray, Mist & Splatter

Wednesday’s Creative Inspirations Challenge #257 Anything Goes, option of a sketch

So I had a snippet of orange and lemon coloured card that I stamped the Pieridae butterflies onto with Versafine before edging the panel with pink and then spraying the living daylights out of it to distress and mottle the stamped card.  I then grabbed some snippets of green card which I die cut using one of my fabulous new dies.  As I had quite a few orange and red snippets from my August creations I die cut the two butterflies too.  As I had a large square piece of purple coloured card I decided to stamp Leonie’s flower onto it and I was able to use the whole piece of card.  I decided to add a bit of depth to the petals to keep it simple.  After I fussy cut the flowers out I started playing with layout and added three more embellishments.  All of these pieces of card were coloured with two sets of my AquaTints and I used three different ink pads.  Snippets piles are a little smaller but I have a way to go to completely catch up with them lol!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Paperbabe Stamps: Pieridae butterfly set

Crafters Companion Leonie Pujol Entwined Collection stamp: Beautiful Bloom

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Sara Signature Collection:

Die’sire:

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; paintbrushes; water pot

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion Sheena Douglass A4 stamping card

Crafters Companion A4 Kraft card

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Beautifully Grunge; Bright & Beautiful

Spectrum Sparkle: clear overlay

Versafine IP: black

Distress IP: Antique Linen

Embellishments:

The Works: large half pearls

Brad (old from my stash)

Adhesives/Mediums:

Double sided tape; fun foam; Collall all purpose glue