Forever Wedding Card

If there's one place I can count on each week for inspiration it's the Muse Card Challenge and this week certainly hasn't disappointed me.

This card by Anita is just beautiful and as soon as I saw it I thought of an idea. So I have been inspired by the white heat embossing, the white border around the embossed image and the unusual colour of the background for a wedding card. I also decided to go wedding as I have so few of these and thought it would be a good way to build a bit of choice in my collection.

As soon as I saw those white embossed flowers I thought of a rose background stamp I have from  'The Ton'. I had white embossed this rose onto multimedia cardstock which is really good with Tim Holtz Distress Oxides. You can play and play and play with very minimal warpage.

I had heat embossed a while ago and had watercoloured one panel but wasn't so happy with the result but this one I love. The Distress Oxides look amazing with this stamped background. I blended first for overall coverage then flicked water. 

Then I decided I wanted more so got out all the colours I liked the thought of so my tattered rose, worn lipstick, barn door, abandoned coral, wild honey and mustard seed, squished on mat, sprayed with water. I drag a piece of acetate through the mess to split it up a bit and cause small bubbles and spots as these look good on the card stock. Use the acetate to place exactly where I want the added bits and turn the card over and just tap down into whats on the mat for more coverage.

I do a lot of little bits at a time and dry the layers in between for more effect. I love how it turned out and I have found the more complimentary colours the better it looks. Once finished and dry I wiped off the flowers with a 'wet one' to bring the white back up. Cut the panel to fit a standard card and glued in place. Finished it off with the 'forever' word die from 'Stamplorations' (ohh yes I do love their dies)and then added some clear gem.

Card Challenges:

First one definitely:

Muse Card Challenge #278

613 Avenue Create Anything Goes without the Twist

Though it doesn't follow the Twist I still reckon it looks

magical the way it turned out :)

Just Us Girls  Week #453 Trend Week

I hope this fits the criteria for watercolours.

If not I will remove

Crafting With An Attitude #42 Anything Goes

Thanks so much for coming to visit. Hope I see you again soon.

Hello Sunshine & a big Thank you to Gina K & Kathy at the Daily Marker Challenge

Long title I know but I wanted to make sure I covered it all.

Look at these amazing wonderful stamps and die I got from Gina K Designs as I won them when participating in Kathy's The Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge  .

I cant thank them enough for this wonderful prize so I thought the best thing to do is to make a card straight away from one of the stamp sets to show my appreciation.

I have spent the last few days just making backgrounds, painting, blending and generally getting very inky. This was an attempt at a sunset, lots of playing and then just had to stop. I'm not an artist and lack the skills for all the little touches it deserved but I felt it passed muster. I then sprayed with a shimmer spray which I probably shouldn't have as it dropped in splotches here and there. Need to work on that step, probably better off adding to the water I use to paint with.

Close up so you can see the shimmer.

I painted with Kurtake Gansi paints in this instance and I must say I love playing with these paints. I don't use them enough and I should as they are so rich in colour and beautiful to use.

I have used the large background stamp that adds the border and those trees. I was using my new Tim Holtz  positioner, I did struggle to get the image to stamp clearly and I don't know whether it was because the positioner needs a mat to lift the paper higher that I was stamping on or if it was because the painted background was struggling to absorb the ink as the watercolour paper I used was not smooth. 

The image eventually stamped and Im really glad I used the positioner as I needed to repeat quite a number of times to get everything stamped. 

I stamped the image again onto multimedia paper and it came out perfectly first time so I can say it was just the cardstock that had warped slightly and had quite a heavy weave and lots of paint on it.

Doesn't  it look amazing. I can see myself using this stamp set a lot. As well as this main framed image theres lots of other smaller tropical images and a cple of sentiments. There was a sentiment 'Hello Sunshine' but I decided to use the white diecut one from Stamplorations as it stood out perfectly on this card.

I love how it looks finished and will continue to work on my backgrounds for more cards.

Again I say thank you to Gina K for these amazing stamps and die and Kathy for making it possible for me to get them in the first place and Tina Magnusson (my piece of paper) who nominated me in the challenge so we both got to shop.

Challenges:

Southern Girls Challenge: Stamp your mark on it with Team Lou

Crafting with An Attitude  Challenge #42

Mod Squad Challenge: Water Theme

Work It Wednesday Simon Says : Watercolour

Thanks so much for coming to visit.

Hello, How Are You?

I know I already had a post today but I couldn't resist making this card after seeing the card on Muse Card Challenge. The ideas just fell into place and I had to move on it today as I'm off to Canberra to see mum and dad tomorrow and I didnt think I would get back in time. Also for the first time I had the time and the idea just came, not last minute as usual.

I love how this turned out, no stamping but some watercolouring, die cutting and embossing a card. Yes I know I never use my stash of embossing folders as I never seem to think of them but seeing this card from Muse Card Challenge and receiving my prize from HLS Challenge which is that fabulous flower die got me going.

What wonderful card Tristan has made for the challenge, I love her embossed card front, the hollow white frame and the blue flower sitting on it.

This die cut is from watercoloured cardstock. I mixed some blues and pinks and mauves from my Distress Inks, then sprayed liberally with Shimmer spray. I did find I needed to put this design twice through the big Shot together a clean cut.

I used a stripped embossing folder to emboss the front of the card. I die cut the frame from Paper Smooches in white card stock and in blue funfoam. Glued them in place added the flowers so some are under the frame and some over, glued them in place and finished the card off with my silver mirror card 'hello'.

I love how it looks and it was so easy to put together.

Challenges:

Muse Card Challenge #277

HLS CAS Card Challenge August

HLS Watercolour Challenge August

Went with the twist

Cute Card Thursday #541 Anything Goes

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

The Flower Challenge #23 One Layer Card

This month we have the very talented Milla from Mustesormi.blogspot.com as Guest Designer on The Flower Challenge. She makes such beautiful cards, please be sure to visit her blog and leave her a comment or three ;) 

Now don't you dare click close just because it's one layer card.

Think about it and then decide your going to give it ago. Come on, if I can do it, you can too. Most important thing to remember it's a FLOWER card challenge so the main image needs to be flowers.

The first thing I want you to do is look at this card and see where I had to rescue my flower. See that pink rose with the dark petal and your thinking 'why has she done that petal so dark???' Wellllll it goes like this, I had nearly finished colouring and opened my dark green Copic to add a bit of shadow on that greenery and blop, yep it was definitely a blop, in my imagination, when that big green blob feel off the end of the nib onto my nearly completed card.

I managed to remove a lot of the green with my colourless blender around the greenery but quite a bit still held on that pink petal. I was going to throw it out, then  I got a call and I had to do a mad dash and there was no time to start again. So I just added more pink and shut it from my mind.  There is no such thing as perfection.

Here I have gone into close up to show the sparkle on the roses.

When I embossed the sentiment the line 'I fall in love' didn't emboss clearly, so I double embossed. Thank goodness for the Misti. When stamping the sentiment the second time I only added ink to the middle line as I didn't want the smaller font to get too thick. 

So although there are errors and could have ended up in the bin or cut out, but I persevered and ended up with a card I rather like.  Since I line most of my cards that heavy ink flow through to the inside won't matter.

Now its time to go to 'The Flower Challenge' and check out the wonderful creations from the rest of the girls. So much stunning inspiration from a truly gifted group of people.

Came back to add a couple of challenges:

Southern Girls Challenge: Flower Power with Team Trace

Crafting With An Attitude Challenge 42 Anything Goes

A Bit More time To Craft Challenge #73 Anything Goes

Thanks For All Your Kindness

If you were here looking a couple of days ago you would have seen the rainbow flowers card I did using all those little petals from this die cut piece. 

I decided I couldn't throw away the negative here so I made another card. If you haven't seen my other post this panel is just watercolour paper with Distress Inks painted on and blended slightly then flicks of water on it after it had dried. I make lots of these panels as they come in handy for so many things and no skill required.

I attached the panel to my card front induct the card down slightly to be the same size as the panel.

I used the die from Gina Marie Designs and this time I cut a white glitter version.

Once it had been through the Big Shot I lifted the  top plate of the Big Shot off and all the pieces stayed in place, I then covered the piece with some Press and Seal and pressed it down so that when I removed the die plate the pieces would all stay in place.

Of course I forgot to take that photo but here you can see the piece laying on the press and seal, imagine all the petals are in place. This makes it a lot easier to transfer the pieces rather than guessing where they fit in.

I didnt add double sided tape this time as it was very slow and laborious removing the paper layers from each piece, I also found most of them fell out so I had to spend a lot of time trying to work out where they went.

This way the 'Press and Seal' kept everything in place. This white glitter is more like a very thin material sort of fluffy on the back, it didnt cut when I used the Cuttlebug but since getting the Big Shot it cuts perfectly and looks fantastic.

I added

this fabulous glue to all the little empty spaces and smeared as I went. You can add all the glue as it dries tacky (it's also fantastic for repositional gluing as in for masking, so you can cut a mask on plain paper and just add this stuff, smear and leave to dry). Will hold masks in place or in this instance I could add pieces and re position if it was crooked no messy glue. Any I got on the painted piece dries clear so you cant see it. Love it, my favourite glue.

As you can see here, all the pieces fit perfectly and it looks so pretty. I finished off with the Simon Says wafer die 'thanks' cut in gold mirror cardstock.

Of course nowwww I have a glitter white outline to use for another card mmmm, perfect for a Christmas card I think.

Challenges:

HLS August Watercolour Challenge : Anything Goes

Twist Flowers

Love to Craft Challenge Blog : August: Anything Goes

Crafty Creations Challenge Blog :#371 Anything Goes

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

Bad day in progress.....stand clear & Hello sunshine

Two cards that just came together. This first card I have done this same background before and rally liked it. White embossed these surf boards randomly on the card base then blended distress inks to give the illusion of the sea. I don't know that these stamps I used a really surf boards I got them many many years ago as I wanted surf boards as my middle son lived for the surf. I think these came closest in look and I have always been happy to use them. This base is added to a white card base.

I decided to add this cute little turtle from a Stamping Bella stamp set. I have Copic coloured. He was amongst a pile I had cut with the Scan 'N' Cut previously. I love the look of the little critter on the edge of the card and have seen a lot of cards doing this lately and thought it was a great way to add a little extra character to the card.

I have added some sparkly crystal gems for a bit of bling which shows up better IRL and the 'Hello sunshine' sentiment from Stamplorations that I cut first in white funfoam and next in the silver mirror card.

This next card, well it really speaks for itself doesn't it!!!

Of course the first time I stamped the image then the sentiment I stamped the sentiment upside down and just stood there thinking yet lets get this bad day rolling. Next stamping worked out fine.

The colouring is simple very basic Copic colouring. Ive never seen a flamingo and looked it up and found so many differing colours I just decided to go with what I was comfortable with. Don't you just love this cutie from AI Art Impressions

Once I finished colouring I decided to cut out using the Tim Holtz Sizzix  Stacked Deckle dies

Then to finish the card off I decided this pattern paper which has a wonderful glitter in the white lines was a perfect finish. Ohhh did I forget to say I added one of those wobble eyes to emphasise how my flamingo was feeling after hitting the ground.

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

Challenges:

Crafty Sentiments Designs : Anything Goes

Hello sunshine card

Retro Rubber Challenge #92 Life a Beach

Not often I get to enter here as always too busy buying new and trying so

Im wrapped I can enter 'Hello sunshine' as those surf boards sure do qualify as old.

Use Your Stuff Challenge #323 Free Week

Ive gone with the free week so would like to enter 'Hello sunshine' card.

613 Avenue Create: Challenge #211 Anything Goes without the Twist

bad day in progress.......

Addicted to CAS Challenge #141 Summertime

bad day in progress........