Sparkle & Shine

Check out the sparkle from the 'Wink of Stella' on the close up. You can see it on the top of the photos full size next two but it looks as though its only at the top. Since all my photos are taken at night I struggle to show the sparkle. I can see it and with the light on it positively blings but it isn't showing up here.

I didn't do this card for a challenge. I just wanted to experiment with the new die from Winnie & Walter. I have so many ideas that I want to try but the first one ended up in the bin. Got glue on the top of the little bitty squares and the copics would not colour over it.

This time I did it slightly differently, it was fiddly but worked. And this time I used watercolour cardstock for the itty bitty bits. Once they were glued securely then I coloured with Zig pens and added water in some parts to water down. I wanted instances where two colours are together on the same shape as its not all squared off. Once dry a couple of pieces lift and had to be re-glued.

Wink of Stella on everything coloured.

Added the Wplus9 'Sparkle & Shine' die.

Since I used a new unused die I will enter in Darnell's NBUS Challenge #5

I think this is my second entry, will need to check. May be able to squeeze another card in with the trailer load of NBUS that sits in the driveway (yeah yeah I'm joking, its actually sitting in the garage on bricks since the tyres burst under the pressure of the load).

Just thought I should add to The Simon Says  Monday Challenge 'Love this Technique'

and of course the technique is using watercolour and sparkle from wink of Stella.

Crafty Girls Challenge 7 AnythingGoes with a twist

Not going with the twist.

Have to post now, the family wants dinner. Hope you enjoy your visit and come again soon.

Take Me to the Moon

I was looking at yet another NBUS stamp set 'Party Dots' Neat & Tangled and thought that big dot with all the little dots makes me think of the moon. So I decided to use for the CASology Challenge.

 I stamped on Dark blue cardstock and embossed with silver. Only stamped part of the circle as it was just too big and overpowering in full. I love the illusion it has made.

I had a sentiment 'Love you to the Moon and back' but the borrowers have it for now. It's been on loan for about a year now, expect it to turn up sometime in the next year. If I was good on my Silhouette I could cut the sentiment but too busy stamping, colouring, sorting the craft room and it needs to go up the list of to dos.

Anyway I like this sentiment because it makes me think of saying to someone sit back, relax and "Take the time to enjoy the simple things" like the stars and the moon......

Okay thats my take on it, nice and simple. looks brilliant with the silver embossing even if I do say so myself.

Time to link it up to the CASology: Week 163 : Moon Challenge

I hope you enjoy your visit and come again soon.

Let's Celebrate

Yes, yes I know another challenge another close to closing time. Obviously my brain takes a while to formulate just what it wants to do.

This card is for the Runway Inspired Challenge and Virginia's View as it fits for both.

Have also used another stamp that's never been used before.  I am on a roll I tell you, I can see a dent at the top of the pile. Well I could till the postie arrived and I had my last order added. Now I have to stop, cant take the exchange rate anymore. Will just have to find joy in what I obviously have and still haven't used (yes I am hanging my head when I look at how many posts start with 'used a unused stamp/die)

My goodness I love to waffle. Lets get on. Used a stamp from a Crafters Meow stamp set. White embossed on watercolour paper. Coloured with Zigs but didn't add water as I wanted to keep the vibrancy of the watercolour. I stamped the image three times (Miss Misti came in very handy for lining up). Then I cut two strips for each side of the embossed image and used a die that just cuts a straight line and the stitched look. Added these strips with dimensional foam tape.

Used one of my die cuts from MFT Celebrate cut in black. Added to the bottom and then decided I wanted to add a little something to go with it.

Found the word 'let's' in a stamp set from Stamplorations 'Celebrate'.

Now to get it loaded up before they close this challenge

Runway Inspired Challenge: Eric #91 Michael Kors

Also would like to enter for Virginia's View Challenge #18 Geometric Patterns

Think I'll hit Darnell's NBUS as well as I haven't used either stamp before.

djkardkreations: NBUS Challenge #5

Okay thats three challenges covered, one in the nick of time and two with time to spare.

Thanks for coming to visit and I hope you will visit again.

Smile

Had been thinking on the gold and green challenge at Less is More for too long. Ended up realising that if I didn't do it now I would wake up and it would be finished. I went with an idea and loved it but there has been errors. Because I didn't give myself enough time to do it in.

I blended Distress Ink (Pistachio I think) Love it. I did it a whole half hour ago and can't remember the name mmmm. Anyway I let the blending fade out so it just went halfway at an angle.

Then I used gold embossing paste with a Stampendous Retro circles Stencil. Don't know how but I missed the bottom edge, could have sworn I lined that up properly. Will need to trim down.

After I finished I thought Gold Die cut sentiment, well I didn't have a gold that went even near it so decided to go with the finest  die cut. 'Smile' with a long before and after line with little twists. Love it, must try with balloons.

Anyway then had to wait for the embossing paste to dry, tried too soon, repaired and waited a bit longer. As I was taking the photo I saw that the stencil had actually lifted a bit of the coloured card stock (I assume this is because the blending was still very tacky so remember if your going to blend colours then use a stencil over the top let the blending dry properly.

Look at that beautiful green and the gold embossing. I have got to try this again.

Time to link it up to the Less is More: Week 240 Colour Challenge Green and Gold

Well I hope you enjoy your visit and come again soon.

Miss You

I thought I would do a simple colouring of this wonderful stamp that is from Annabelle's stamps (sorry no longer available). Not used enough, actually I hate to say but I think this is the first time I have used it. I have attempted to colour before but was not happy with the result and didn't keep it.

Anyway coloured with two copics for the blue and an aqua for the centre and leaves.

did the centres with Glossy Accents to give a nice finish. Played with a lot of ideas to finish the card off and ended up wanting to just stamp a small sentiment 'miss you'.  All lined up and ready to ink and didn't see the wee bit of fluff so we ended up with a little 'extra' something on the sentiment. 

I'm quite pleased with this for a CAS challenge just not sure if I needed to ground the stems. Did try a couple of ideas but wasn't happy so just left it.

Time to enter the Addicted to CAS: Challenge #71 Blue

Blue flowers and Missing you so feeling blue!

Would also like to add to Addicted to Stamps and More: Challenge #161 Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting and hope you come again.

Flowers Whisper What Words Cannot Say

I love the sentiment 'Flowers whisper what words cannot say'. I think its so true. I  white embossed the flower stamps. I have used a combination of two stamp sets as I wanted small flowers as well as the main large one. Will post the name if anyone is interested.

Okay embossed on watercolour cardstock. Bit of masking involved. Then I watercolored with my Peerless Watercolours, very soft to begin with and then built up the colour. Then I found I had this empty spot between the big flowers where the embossing powder had not taken. I used a white gel pen and finished off the petals but still had a blank area so decided to add some green.

Then I took the green around the bottom of the flowers and changed to a washy blue green on top but then felt I had ruined the image with too much green in the left corner.

I washed out as much as I could but then felt leave it alone. I decided to cut it down slightly by using the stitched die then decided to do my wonky layout with purple layer and green card base.

I hope this still fits within this challenge

Just Add Ink # 278 Inspiration Challenge

I'm sure the flowers do and hope that since I used purple and green cardstock and both of those are present in the photo its okay. If not my apologises and please delete.

Just thought should add this to the NBUS Challenge as the flowers both belong to yes 'stamp sets that I have not used before'.

djkardkreation :NBUS #5

Was just thinking I should share this at the Time out Challenge #39 Make your mark

I have watercolored so I have made my mark.

Mum and dad and a sheep or three.

I'm going to digress here as I just want to share to those who are aware of what is happening with mum and dad.Mum and dad as many of you know are battling dementia and Alzheimers. Mum has Alzheimer's, it was progressing very rapidly, was aware of what was happening and life was looking terrible. Mum is now on a medication that has slowed the progress and even given back a little of what had been lost. This has meant that I don't need to live there five days a week now and I just stay two days and stay home five days unless something urgent comes up. If need be I can travel there in two hours. 

Dad has progressed to the stage that all his thoughts and conversations are on the past and some stroppy behaviour, often behaving more like a spoilt child than an adult but overall life is mostly better.

I ring a few times day to see how things are and this morning mum sounded so down cause dad was just being rotten so when I got off the phone I decided to order some flowers for mum. I felt the words used in the sentiment above are so relevant, I just wanted mum to know I am always thinking of her and love her. She rang after lunch and sounded like a different person.

And now to share a funny moment. I had a visitor this morning or I should say three. We back onto a bit of farmland. Three sheep decided to come visit, coming through our neighbours yard. Elysha was signing at me 'sheep at the door' 'sheep at the door' Jake is barking and I look out the front and there's a sheep at the door. I grabbed the camera and went to the door and it had moved to the driveway so I stepped out to take a shot.

 and another two bolted past me from the other side of the house. Scared the hell out of me. I thought there was only one. Ended up down the bottom of the street and my neighbour and I had to herd them back up another driveway and out to the property behind us. Sheep have got to be the most brainless animals, so easy to make them run like idiots one direct then another.

Exciting morning hey!!.

Well thanks for visiting and hope you come again.

Kraft Card Base

This is my first time using Kraft Card and will probably be my last. I bought it who knows how long ago and it has sat there. Then I saw the Challenge at Avery Elle and thought Non White Card Base and decided to try this.

After stamping this beautiful image and as I finished colouring them in, the penny dropped - wrong stamps. I don't have any colouring images from Avery Elle (how remiss and this must be corrected as soon as the dollar gets healthier). I have a geometric set and a Combi Van set and plenty of dies but no flowers or critters. 

I would need to rethink this challenge so back to that later. Onto these cards. I Stamped this beautiful bouquet of flowers and white embossed. They are from Wplus9. I coloured in with Derwent Pencils, I first coloured with white pencil but it doesn't show up so well on the second card pink flowers. Looks better IRL. I was happy with how they turned out and I added bits of colour to the side of the white embossed buds just so there was colour there.

I then used a white gel pen and added some dotted lines making the dots smaller as they moved out.

Certainly pays to use the emboss buddy to stop all that stray white embossing that appears on coloured cardstock as random white specks when not done properly. Well worth purchasing, mine must be 5 or so years old now and still going strong as I do lots of embossing.

I'm not sure which one but you can see some stray bits on one of the cards.

I was pleased with the end result but my hands weren't especially after doing the copic colouring yesterday. I will stray away from these pencils for a while. I prefer the inktense. The big flowers were a number of coats before I was happy with the end result.

Now to find a challenge for these beauties.

AAA Cards Challenge #47: Spectacular Embossing

I'm hoping this fits the bill as I certainly think my embossing looks lovely and clean and spectacular!!

Fan-Tastic Tuesday: 8 September challenge 102 - anything goes with a twist, feminine

I do believe these are feminine

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Bright and Colourful

I forgot to say '  Hope you enjoy your visit and come again'

Just wanted to say.......

I was about to go to bed and thought of this card. I wasn't going to worry about entering because I couldn't think of anything original. Then this hit. The idea here is - write the note..., little bit of ink spills,  then it's flying away to someone..... then it starts with 'just wanted to say......'. I liked the idea so went with it.

One of those 5 minute cards. Stamped using there Hero Art Ombre Ink Pads -blue tones and green tones. The sentiment is from an Altenew 'Hello' Stamp set and the rest comes from a Papertrey stamp set.

I would like to enter this in 

CASology: Week 162 Write

with 3 hours to spare.

Hope you enjoy your visit and come again.

Happy Birthday

I am so happy with how this turned out. I had so many ideas. I decided to enter in a Colour Throwdown and of course its now last minute but I love the colour choices for this one.

I stamped the flowers from a new Altenew stamps. I looked at so many ideas but decided to go this way. I stamped them down the length of the cardstock and of course I never thought of size so the card is larger than I would normally do. I stamped in lemonade  distress ink  which was pretty pale but worked and also did a bit of masking. I then used a mix of four yellow copics to produce the curves and highlights.

I then outlined the inner section of the flowers with the palest grey copic I have just to add a bit of shadow.

I then fussy cut along the length of the card any white that showed.

I then got a larger piece of card stock so I could blend blue down the side, distress ink again. I sprayed with shimmer mist then lightly blended again to soften. I only wanted a bit of shimmer not a night sky with stars which is what it looked like.

If you look closely you can see the bits of shimmer.

Stamped sentiment and added a couple of navy gems to finish it off. I am really happy with this but sure wouldn't do too often cause I felt like my hands were going to seize up.

I would like to enter this in a couple of challenges.

Colour Throwdown #358 Countdown

Also Seize the Birthday without the Topping

finally

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge : Anything Goes

Was just looking at the Time Out Challenge and thought I would add to that one as well. Hopefully 4 challenges is not too many anywhere.

Time Out Challenges : Challenge #39 "Make your Mark"

I passed on the optional twist for this one as I haven't gone Monochrome.

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

Happy Birthday to You

I decided to have a go at the Less is More Challenge 'Sprays or Mists' but having made the card I think I might have added too much colour to qualify for the Less is More CAS style. Will enter anyway and if you could just delete if its too much.

I have had the Dylusions Sprays for ohhh I don't know how long and yes they were in my NBUS pile. I don't know why as they are beautiful to use, I think the problem is just too much to use and not enough time. I cut up a pile of cheap watercolour paper, laid the rectangles inside an old postage boys and commenced to spray. I ended up doing about eight, learning as I went. The first couple were too heavy but I weened myself down to this one. Also worked on my technique. Used Orange; Yellow and Tangerine sprays. One squirt of Tangerine in the corner, double light spray of orange then came in with the yellow but kept the concentration down near bottom, right hand side.

Coloured the cute Wplus9 giraffes with copics then die cut them.

Placed the watercolour paper flat on the white cardbase. Placed the giraffes with a thin layer of double sided foam tape.

Close up of the little cuties here.

I stamped the sentiment 'Happy Birthday to You' using Miss Misti as I wanted to do the main part of the sentiment in black and the balloon which is part of the sentiment in coloured ink. Used a red/orange ink. Worked out pretty well, even though you can see a smidgen of black ink that I didn't quite remove.

Ok need to add to the Less is More :Week 239 Lucky Dip Sprays/Mists

Thank you for coming to visit and hope you come visit again.