Best Wishes & Live Laugh Love

Two cards today, both using background stamps and sentiment dies.

This first card is using a Hero Arts Background stamp I have used a few times before. Last time I did on watercolour paper and coloured  randomly and sparingly. This time I have gold embossed on Vellum then coloured using Zigs.

I love using the Zig watercolours on vellum and find they work beautifully by blending a light colour with a dark contrast colour without water. I find I have no warping when used this way. In this instance I have used a light yellow zig and the red wine zig.

After I finished colouring I went back over the coloured sections with Wink of Stella ( getting very low, had to add water to the cylinder to get more use out of it). Love the sparkle.

I played around with a few different ideas for the panel behind the vellum and decided to keep it simple and went with white cardbase. Finished it off with a'Best Wishes' die cut out of gold mirror cardstock.  Attached the vellum by leaving it slightly longer than the card front and tapped down at the back of the card. Also added some little dots of glue behind some of the coloured sections.

It really looks wonderful IRL but I feel the photo doesn't show it to its best.

This next card

Is a IO Impression Obsession background stamp. I was trying to get a rose background stamp from another company and overtime I tried it was sold out and then saw this one and fell in love. Love how this looks. I stamped and gold embossed on Multimedia paper (thanks Loll, fantastic suggestion) and water coloured with zigs. In this instance I have used water, so I just scribbled on each flower with a bit of colour then tidied up each with water and brush. In some instances I have combined a couple of colours in others I have just added a second layer of the same colour to some petals.

For some of the colours I used a much darker colour and then pulled with the brush to blend colours to add light and shadow. Of course once it was dry I then went over everything with my Wink of Stella to add a wee bit of glitter.

I couldn't decide what to do with the panel once coloured sit was large and I thought maybe I should cut up panel but someone suggested I use a large sentiment die. I had purchased this word die which was a very good price. But when it arrived it was one of those purchases I looked at and thought 'Aileen check the dimensions first'. It went in a draw as a decide what to do with that later, I couldn't see myself using it as it was so large. Well I'm glad it was suggested I use a large word die, I got it out and found it was not too big after all. It looks fantastic on this card and would also be great for other card fronts with washes colour. Its from Kaisercraft, isn't it fantastic.

I cut three times in white card stock, once out of the panel itself (to be used later) and once from gold card stock. Inset the die in the card front then layered.

Doesn't need anything else, perfect as it is. Even if I do say so myself.

Challenges:

A Blog Named Hero : June 2016 Challenge : Vellum

Best Wishes card.

Seize the Birthday : Anything Goes

Best Wishes on your Birthday

Happy Little Stampers June Challenge : Anything Goes with a Die

Live Laugh Love card.

Alphabet Challenge Bog : 'H' for Hand Coloured Image

Live Laugh Love card

Creative Friday :Challenge #155 Flowers

Live Laugh Love card

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

'Life's too short to act normal!'

This title I think you could say says it all about me. I try to act normal as little as possible. I enjoy entertaining others, humour and try to never take myself seriously. Lucky for me Elysha and Dale and Jessie have all inherited this same characteristic so it makes life easier. I have a couple of children who are more serious, they have a good sense of humour but don't always see the funny side of things so we have to be careful how far we go when joking. We never joke or laugh at the expense of others but we do enjoy a practical joke or two. My expertise is more being able to see the funny side to most circumstances and keeping things lite so unhappiness can pass quicker. I use this 'talent to get Elysha out of her misunderstanding funks that are mostly due to her not understanding properly what someone has said and I have also found it particularly helpful in dealing with issues that arise from mum and dads dementia/Alzheimers. Enough on that,

Now just check out this card

I love what I have achieved here. There is a challenge and this week it is 'Selfies', I had an idea and started with that. I love this new stamp set from 'The Ton'. they have to be the cutest pandas I have seen. My first card I did the pandas rolling around on the ground laughing, but I did two of the larger polaroid frames and did some lop sided photos but didnt feel it worked.

So I started again, did my laughing pandas with very red cheeks but this time I used the smallest polaroid frames out of copic cardstock. Then stamped the 'selfies' and coloured.

 After placing everything where I wanted it, I drew in some grass and stamped this sentiment.

Its finished and I'm very happy.

Challenges :

Shopping Our Stash: Challenge #256 : Let Me Take a Selfie

Make a Polaroid Scene is the actual title so I might have missed the mark here. Please let me know if I have and I will remove. Shopping my stash: Polaroid dies that have sat for a long time not being loved, sentiment that hasn't seen the light of day for a long time. Stamps are new but never used before.

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge : Animal Magic

CAS Mix Up Challenges June

Stamping + Die-cuts + Fussy Cutting

HLS June Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

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

'To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow'

Long title but a beautiful saying apparently said by Audrey Hepburn. Love it and it comes in a set of sayings that are just as lovely. They are from The Ton along with the beautiful flowers I have stamped here. The flowers are from a set, each flower and leaf is separate and there is one other large peony and the set is called 'Loose Peonies'.

To be totally honest this is a card that wasn't meant to be cause anything that can go wrong has gone wrong. I started out with the wrong colours so the darker blue is covering the original colour that as purple. Then I grabbed the wrong green for the leaves, was onto the second leaf and the copic had a blob fest luckily it was to the leaves that have the darker blue flower stuck over the purple flower so most of the blob went under. The I realised after I had coloured the replacement flower I had gone one colour darker so it differs from all the other flowers.

Then we have all the strategically placed sequins for the bits of smudge ink I managed to get on the card and the spots of random blue that I was colouring with. To finalise I decided to add a strip of white glitter paper each side, have the coloured panel sitting slightly higher. I held, I measured I adjusted and I still ended up crooked and more one side than the other. I stamped the sentiment with Stazon Ink on the vellum so it wouldn't smudge and rather liked the look of it down on the design rather than above so I finished it off that way.

A card or errors but still loved.

Thank goodness Jake is a patient dog, Aaron entertaining himself using a photo app to turn Jake the companion into Jake the police dog. To do this they have to get Jake to stay still and stare at the phone so the app will recognise his face for structure for adding features. Usually the app will focus on the person holding the dog. He's a good boy (Jake that is)

Challenges:

Mod Squad Challenge : Repeat After Me

I have used the same peony stamp and stamped three times.

Addicted to Stamps Challenge #128 Flowers

Penny Black and More June Challenge : Flower Power

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

Happy Birthday Monsters

Some cute monsters (well as cute as a monster can be). These are digital images

from Tiddy Inks, another of my favourites in digital images. I've had these monsters for a while but this is the first time I have inked them up. I decided to try stocking up on children cards, well at least till my son comes to visit and goes through the cards for ones they could use.

I have coloured with Copics and added a little variation by giving some contrasting horns and feet. After colouring I went back and redefined their teeth with the white gel pen then re-outlined.

I stamped the Happy with one idea in mind then realised by die cut 'birthday would go over the balloon so I decided to put the sentiment up higher and added gold mirror cardstock die cut streamers and wee little gold dots. I think it works and I love the look of my monsters.

Challenges?

Alphabet Challenges : H for Hand Coloured Image

Morgans Artworld Challenge #12 : Happy Birthday

Seize The Birthday : Sunshine

Without the topping.

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

Enjoying Watercolouring, Three Cards

 This is a fair size post as I have done three cards. Enjoy

This first card I did with the Addicted to CAS Challenge in mind. This weeks challenge is petals so I had a bit of a play with the stamp. This stamp is from Inspired to Stamp and is new to me. It comes with the main small bunch of flowers and a single petal. I stamped the main bunch then added the single one, but covered one of the petals on it to infer that that petal has fallen.

I then stamped the single flower falling and two single petals this time covering the other three petals and only stamping the one. A bit of the line didn't stamp so I drew with the versa emboss pen to add it back in. All the stamping was white embossed.

I watercoloured with Zigs and got a lovely pink/orange mix but kept fiddling around and ended up with quite a dark flower. Too late to do it again so will use this one and continue on my quest for soft colours.

I finished the card off with the 'Awesome' gold foil cardstock die  cut and then decided to add the stamped sentiment 'you are'. You have already guessed haven't you, it was not a clear stamp so hard to judge and ended up crooked. My fix was to stamp again onto the same watercolour cardstock and cut as a little banner.

This stamps is another from 'Inspired to Stamp'. I have combined two separate stamps to make a cluster and I love how it turned out. Again stamped and white embossed and zig watercolours.

I haven't added any Wink of Stella but will do so later. Just forgot before I took the photo.

Finished the card off with the 'congrats' which is from silver mirror cardstock and die cut. All finished off with some randomly placed sequins.

Now the final card for tonight  is the W9Plus birds stamped and clear embossed as I like the control for watercolouring.

My birds are a very unique rainbow coloured species that like hanging out with my rainbow coloured flowers in my imaginary perfect garden. There is a very strong theme at the moment for making a scene on your card so I thought I would do that. Here we have the family at home which is up on the branch.

Their getting a bit skittish as mum is late with dinner and has rocked up with a french fry and they were rather looking forward to worm burgers. Mum can never work out these teenagers, so thats why she's standing there with leaves dropping down all around her and yelling out 'what? Whats up???'

So there you go, have I set the scene for you?.

Right now for challenges:

Just For The Girls: #346 Word Week

Bird card of course

Stampin Royalty :Challenge #333: One Layer

my birds card

Stamping Sensations : June Challenge : Feature a Creature

Addicted to CAS Challenge #89: Petals

The first card with the petals dropping down the front.

Simon Says Monday Challenge : Summer Garden

Frangipani the first card is definitely a summer garden item.

Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #197 : Make Your Mark

My purple flower card watercoloured as my mark

Penny Black and More : June Challenge: Flower Power

the purple flower card

AAA Cards : Game #66 : Watercolours

The purple flowers card

Less is More Challenge #279: Colour: Purple

The purple flower card

Ok I think I got them all. Thanks for coming to have a look and I hope you come again soon.

Love my DAD

I've made two cards, just have to decide which one to give dad, the red or the blue. Theres plenty of time to decide because in Australia its not Fathers Day till September.

 Coloured with Copics, these are digital images from Tiddy Inks and this is the first time I have inked them up. Don't know why, cause they really are nice and colour up perfectly. I'm particularly pleased with the colouring of the tyres that I have managed to emphasise the light on the tires and the metal of the rims.

I decided to cut the panel slightly smaller than the card front so I could put a layer of patterned paper on the card base. I tried to pick paper that was representative of the cars time line. So the red paper is a distressed look.

This paper is old palings on a fence. This type of truck on the farm in Australia is called a Ute, great for carting the family around and loading feed or hay in the back. If you look closely

at the old farm truck you can see what was called the running boards along under where the doors open. This meant you had a step down to get out of the truck and a step up to get into the truck or to get to stuff in the back of the ute. I used this because my dad has dementia and most of what he talks about now is from his past and days on the farmers a child/young man. 

One story he loves to tell me is that he always got sick in the truck (car sickness) so when they went into town from the farm his dad would let him stand on the running board, holding on for dear life to the window post, as they went over the rough tracks and pot holes into town. The rest of the family were all crammed into the truck and the back of the truck, excited about their visit to town. 

I look at photos of my dad, who was a little tyke and I'm amazed he managed to hang on as they made their way to town. 

I'm hoping this will bring a smile to his face.

Challenges

The Paper Players : PP298 : A theme Challenge From Claire

Crafty Calendar Challenge : June Fathers Day/For a Male

unable to find an image to represent the blog.

4 Crafty Chicks :Masculine 4CC #301

Cute Card Thursday : Challenge 428 : Fathers Day

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

Now if you want to look further

I thought I would finish my post with some shots of the Vivid festival that is currently going

 on in Sydney. This is a yearly event and spectacular to see.

Even Doctor Who is represented.

Could the Opera House be any 

more beautiful. Constantly changing

 A view of the Harbour. You can see some of the areas that are lit up.