Big Hello

Ohh my goodness I do love colouring in these big bold floral background stamps from The Ton.

This one is 'Morning Glory Garden Cling' and I think this is the second time I have used it. The first time was on vellum and that turned out wonderful so this time I decided to go with Multimedia watercolour paper and I love how the Zigs work on this as well.

I have gone with rich deeper colours in line with Autumn though this flower isn't an Autumn flower I think the colours have worked perfectly with it. Again I have coloured without adding water. I have picked the deepest colour in each selection then the lightest to move the colour further then blended and lightened even more with my Nuvo Shimmer brush which means I have a fabulous shimmer through the whole thing.

I was inspired by Laurel Beards card to go with watercolours. I was going to try the stamps like Laurel has but I was not happy with the result and decided I really do like more control so I have the stamped and gold embossed flower panel. The colours used are within the Autumn range like Laurel used.

I loved the idea of a one colour cardbase and went with yellow so it shows up on the edges and I loved the inset die cut with the additional layer so it sits slightly higher. This is one of my favourite techniques and since the card is so large I decided to give my Altenew 'Hello' die a go.

Here you can see the shimmer on the right on the flowers, this is obvious all over the card but as always hard to catch by photo.

Here if you look at the 'e' you can see my black funfoam behind the die cut word as its still a bit squished from the cut and you can see some of the yellow card base. This will flatten out enough to cover the cardbase but stay high enough to give that black shadow behind the diecut.

i love how this turned out and reckon the flowers look amazing in Autumn range.

Will definitely do this again.

Challenges:

As always last minute for the Muse Challenge #288

Thanks so much for the wonderful inspiration Laurel.

613 Avenue Create Card Challenge #214 Anything Goes Without The Twist

Addicted to Stamps Challenge #167 Autumn Colours

Off to sit with mum for a few days and visit with dad. Of course I will need to drop in on my new grandson on the way there and then on the way back on the weekend. Nothing like a wonderful baby cuddle to chase away the blues.

Take care everyone, thank you for coming to visit and I hope you come again soon.

Look at those wonderful long toes.

Merry & Bright and Just Because

Working my way through all the diecuts and stamped images I had left over from last Christmas. 

How easy was this little Christmas card, the white glitter paper is enough to decorate the front of a card and I used the 'Merry & Bright' diecut from Lil Inker stamps. Cuts so smoothly and looks great.

I only made a small Christmas card to go with it and that is in red cardstock. The panel behind was made from a tissue paper technique I learnt from Loll Thompson the link takes you to a video she made on this. Can you see the gold embossing on the crinkles -she taught that too . The card looks crooked here but its not - its my photography. 

One day I will have time to learn how to do this properly.

This card is a Stamping Bella stamp and I have coloured her with Copics. I cut down the panel with this sweet lace die from Gina Marie Designs Ohhh I do love their dies and such a good price too.

The Just Because diecut is a Kaisercraft but sadly is discontinued.

I decided to use another coloured cardbase so went mint and then lined inside with white.

Card Challenges :

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #409 : Anything Goes

New to me Christmas Challenge with Hazel

Merry Christmas Card

Jo's Scrap Shack Challenge FFC #257 Anything Goes

Just Because

Creative Friday Challenge #217 Christmas is Coming

Merry Christmas

Cute Card Thursday Challenge :#553 Sparkle

Merry Christmas

Happy Crafters Challenge : Anything Goes October

Just Because

Crafty Creations Challenge #377 Anything Goes

Cant sign off without sharing another photo

One week old xx

Welcome to our family & Miss you

This first card is me playing with a Hero Art Kit (I hate to admit how many are waiting for me to play lol) I think this is the September kit (not the fox, the Copic coloured branches and leaves and flowers and the leaf cut oval panel.

I cut the leaf panel from a watercoloured piece of paper that had some distress ink in pale green and gold on it. I then cut the same shape again but didn't add the oval outline so it cut just the leaves and left a white base around the oval cutout. On the card base I blended pale greensand blue in Oxides to fill the background. Flicked some water. 

Added the white overlay with the leaf cutout then worked out where I wanted the fox. Added the fox then the green oval cutout leaf frame and then randomly attached the Copic coloured leaves and flowers.

Finished off with the gold 'Miss You'. I cut all the leaves from the kit with my Scan n Cut as it was quicker after stamping and I could do the full sets in one go, stamped twice in less than 5 minutes.

Next up I couldn't resist sharing this photo of my latest grandson in my handbag :)

I have a favourite saying with all my grandchildren will say 'Ohh what was that?' as I hold them close 'Ohhh you want to come home with me?' then I tell my kids 'he/she wants to come home with me, so I will just put him/her in my bag and get going'.

Aaron & Rachael have the same sense of humour and thought it would be funny to take a photo so here it is.

 I call it "Getting busted trying to sneak out of the hospital"

This is the card I made to welcome Koby into our family.

I love this baby image from Mo's Digital Pencil, it is so sweet and gentle. I coloured with Copics.

Inside I stamped this sentiment I have had for ever as I still love it just as much as when I first bought it. I have had it so long I cant actually tell you where its from sorry. There are a quite a few sentiments in the set.

After colouring I cut the Copic cardstock out with my Sizzix stacked deckle frame die then cut another layer in pretty blue to add behind. The die cut 'welcome' in silver mirror card added next then stamped the 'darling boy'. All done.

Challenges:

Through The Craft Room Door Anything Goes Challenge # 23rd October Ikes Art

Miss You Card

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #92 Anything Goes

Welcome to our family

Addicted to Stamps Autumn Colours #167

Miss you Card

Stamping Sensations October Challenge Autumn Inspiration

Miss You Card - 3rd card entered

Crafting with an Attitude #44 Anything Goes

Welcome To Our Family Card

Jo's Scrapbook Shack : Anything Goes Challenge #256

Welcome To Our Family Card

Thanks so much for coming to visit and I hope you come again soon.

If you have good thoughts........

Now you know I love a challenge and I love the Muse Challenge and I spend my time doing everything else and leaving my thoughts on the card till the last minute. This week I have an excuse,

palliative care are assessing mum's care needs and on the opposite end of the spectrum my latest grandchild was born. Today I went and spent the day with the new parents then came home and cooked dinner for tonight and another dinner for tomorrow night as I babysit another grandchild tomorrow and we want to go as a family over to see the baby tomorrow night and I thought taking dinner would make life easier.

Yes a long excuse, I then sat down to watch some television and an idea came to me, I had two hours to go so here we are. First I will show you the beautiful inspiration card made by Kim:

I loved the layers, a different one for the sentiment, another for the flowers; I also love the large sentiment and the purple flowers stamped in layers and then cut out.

I have gone with layers;

the sentiment on a seperate layer;

the flowers I used are digital images that I printed up

cut with the Scan N Cut

Coloured with Violet Copics as I wanted to keep them lighter

so I could add Purple to the background.

I love this sentiment which is from Unity Stamps and I have had it quite a while.

I don't seem to like my flowers as much when stamped in layers, I struggle with lining them up so I prefer to colour with Copics. These flowers are from DotB digital stamps. Also worth checking out her website EunJi is such a talented artist.

I blended with Distress Oxides, a few flicks of water. I then die cut with the Size dies (love the edges) added dimensional foam to the back of the sentiment and finished off with some beautiful clear gems that have a rainbow caste to them.

Time to link up before the challenge closes, 30 minutes to go.

Challenges:

Muse card Challenge #287

'Sending Love & Hugs' and 'Thanks For Being Such a Wonderful Friend'

I made this card to support a wonderful cause then missed the deadline. So annoyed with myself.

Will share anyway and try to keep track a bit better next time. This wonderful stamp and die set are from Pink Fresh and I love the die cut as well as the stamps.

I need to work on my die cutting skills with this one but will get there. After colouring the flowers in all different pink and the leaves in greys I also did a die cut in pink fun foam.

The sentiment Sending love & hugs also has a die and both sentiments come with the floral stamp.

I love how it turned out and finished it off with some sparkly clear gems.

This card is made using a leaf stencil. I used white texture paste and added small amounts of colour in lemon, orange and red to the paste then spread it on the stencil. As I smeared it back and forward it mixed the colours a bit and the orange looks the strongest though that was a red I used.

I trimmed the panel down slightly then added to a card base. I decided to use gold washi tape each side for contrast then finished off with the 'Thanks' die cut in gold mirror card and the background layer cut in vellum and one wooden leaf. This is for a friend and just to let her know she is very appreciated.

For those of you who don't go to Instagram or Facebook I would like to share the news that my latest grandchild has been born to my youngest child.

Koby Aaron was born the 19th at10:11pm weighting 6lb 7oz.

Here he is with his proud mum and dad and Aunty Elysha who is also

Aaron's twin.

Such a wonderful point in our lives and a truly lifting time in

a year of so much sadness. 

Ready to go home.

Challenges:

Stamping Sensations October : Shades of Autumn

Thanks Card

Crafty Calendar Challenge : October Challenge :Autumn

(Sorry couldn't find your blog button)

Thanks Card

CAS-ual Fridays #210 Pinks & Greys

Sending Love & Hugs

As You Like It Challenge : Clean and Simple or Fussy and Fancy and Why

Clean and Simple is what I would call it, an image to colour in very simply

and diecut, lots of white space.

 Time Out Challenge #120 Colourful

Thanks

Crafting With An Attitude: Challenge 44 Anything Goes

Sending Love & Hugs

Thank you so much for coming to visit and see you again shortly.

Reminder The Flower Challenge #25 Add Sparkle

Its time for another card to remind you that The Flower Challenge has only 10 days left for this challenge which is all about 'Sparkle'. Sparkle can be adding sparkly things to the card front, sparkling up the sentiment, background sparkle or sparkle on the coloured image.

I could not resist using the big background stamp from The Ton again. I so love these big flowers especially as it gives me a chance to look at shadows and highlights in a large version. Also the Zigs combined with the Nuvo brush make colouring so very easy to experiment with.

Here I have added the faintest bit of the dark pink on the end of the petal and on the tip then use the palest pink to pull the colour out a bit then the Nuvo glimmer brush to spread the colour, wiping off extra colour onto a paper towel.

Check out that sparkle on both the petals and the sentiment. The sentiment I die cut in pink funfoam and the silver adhesive glitter paper (ahhhh I am getting low, what to use on everything but don't want to run out). I just love this adhesive glitter paper, the way the thread flows on it and the ease of cutting and adhering when using it.

This sentiment I cut out of the flower first so I now have a very pretty pink sentiment to use somewhere else and I have inset the funfoam so it lines up perfectly.

Stamped and white embossed the small sentiment on black card stock and added with a piece of foam adhesive to lift it slightly.

Another large card to send to someone just to let them know they are 'fabulous'

Okay now that you have seen my card its time to go check out the rest of the Design Teams beautiful inspirational cards and see if we have inspired you to add to our Challenge.

Challenges:

Seize the Birthday : Anything Goes

As You Like It Challenge : Clean And Simple or Fussy and Fancy - any why

I think I would describe myself as Clean and Simple

and this card is a typical example. One layer, watercolour,

die cut sentiment, sparkle thats me.

The Creative Crafters : #9 Anything Goes