Seven hills Craft Challenge

Over at the SevenHills Craft challenge we have been asked to pick one of these  colour palettes and to make a Christmas themed card.,I chose the last one which can be interpreted as either gold and silver or blues grey and browns.

I chose to use silver for the dove and gold for the olive branch and to make it involved taping off  the branch and heat embossing the dove and then taping off the dove and heat embossing in gold the branch....and a LOT of hair tearing .:)

The paper smooches image is usually much sharper but I had to  emboss it twice as there was gaps!!Its maybe not the best heat embossing that I have done but it might have been the texture on the linen cardstock that I decided to use that was causing the problem!But apart from that I am happy how it turned out in RL

I then mounted it on gold mirror card.

Before mounted that I then heated embossed the sentiment again from PS in silver.

Thanks for taking the time to look

xxx

Muse Christmas Visions no.2

This is my take on Elizabeth's second card over at MCV and I admit that it kinda went off on a tangent....

You see discovered I  don't have a  branches stamp so then I had to think of something else so thought branches  = trees! with me so far?

Then I found my little cottage one and I just love it  and so from that this card was born !

So my inspiration came from :-

Branches (well trees have branches dont they??) and Elizabeth's are pine branches!

Inky backgound

Colours blue ,black and yellow

Image to the left of the card  ...Ok I'm reaching with that one :)
Has intended to put on  a white sentiment but had a senior moment and had inked and stamped it before I remembered !!! 

But thanks for looking 

xxx

Muse:Christmas Visions

This week over a Muse:Christmas Visions  they have a Guest Designer and it is none other than ElizStewart and she has given us not one but two cards to play along with !

For my card I chose the snowflake one ...Isn't it a beauty loved that diecut snowflake in the middle!

(hoping time allows and I can have a go at doing an inky background one like Elizabeth's second card too!)

I found my eye drawn to the word Joy and the snowflakes on Elizabeth's card so I went with that .

I found my inspiration from:-

The word Joy 

The sparkly snowflake 

and finally the tiny bits of bling - gems  

Thanks for taking the time to look

xxx

October Sketch

This months challenge over at Seven Hills Crafts is a sketch one

You can twist it, flip it, change the shapes to suit - as long as we can see the general starting point for your inspiration was our sketch

I found myself doing all of the above :)

The star shape led me to think of Christmas and that led on to using my favourite wreath layering stamp by W9 and I blinged it up a bit by adding some wink of stella to the holly leaves - which is an unknown stamp ..read that as I have forgotten! and the black blobs are in RL gold glittery stickles.

Adding it all to a stitched mat that I think is the Mama elephants one and then popped iton to red shimmer card stock. 

Thank you for taking the time to look

xxx

Cupcake inspirations

This month over at {Cupcake Inspirations } they have a colour challenge going on and when I saw it I just couldn't help thinking about making a Christmas Card ...cant seem to stop making them just now! and these colours lend themselves so perfectly for this type of Christmas card

In RL my sky on the card is a darker shade of navy but whenever I highlight the card to see the silver embossed stars -it lightens the sky but I'm sure you get the idea! I also used a wink of stella on my silhouette images as I saw on those cupcakes a fine dusting of glitter on the frosting but the photo doesn't show it up at all :(

I love this paper smooches stamp set and have used it a few times I must admit! but love how it tells this story so simply - and its so quick and easy to recreate if i want, (except when you have to cover up the original sentiment as it went on squint...that took a good few goes!!!! :)

Thank you for taking the time to pop over and have a look

xxx

Card Concept 78

Unheard of for me but I have another card that I'm posting today!...

Can you guess its a horrible day outside ??

:)

This time I'm taking part in the Card Concept Challenge.Where they had this beautiful inspiration photo which just screamed baby card to me!

I took inspiration from the colours of the drawers and the jumper .

I used Lawn Fawn little bundle stamps coloured with pro markers and hand cut it out 

To make it a bit more girlie I added a wink of Stella to the clothes to make them sparkle in the light ..maybe you can see it better in the close up?

Not sure if this would be classed as a CAS card or a clean and graphic  or maybe we can say it's both????

:)

Thank you for taking the time to look

xxx

Muse:Christmas Vision

Yeah I know I can hear you you say this is nothing like the Muse card but there is no way on this earth that I can have done anything as stunning as Stephanie's card!!

So instead I went the route of taking the ...

Colours (ok mine are paler but there is blue and green red and silver on my card!)

One focal image in the centre

Silver Embossing

Oh and the same words on the sentiment which again is below my focal image 

:)

I originally added stars to the background but it just didnt look so I settled for star like flowers ..ok Im reaching with that one :)

Thanks for taking the time to look

xxx

Seven hills craft challenge

Over at the Seven hill Craft challenge they have asked for you to use the "spotlight " technique and to use only their products ..which is a huge list btw and the reason I know this?  its my go to shop for all those American brands that are hard to source over here, and can be found most mornings having my coffee and a wee browse of it at the same time lol.

But back to the challenge,

Never having used this technique before did a bit of research and it says to highlight through colour or layers part of your image.

So intrigued decide to give it a go!

Many moons later and tearing of hair :( this is what I came up with....

I'm not sure if it's right,but after I tried multiple images with one part highlighted but found I was never happy - they all looked wrong somehow !

Decided to stamp these Paper Smooches snowmen which I got ages ago and are now out of stock I see, used an oval die to cut out a section (didn't realise it was scalloped until i had cut it out ..but actually think it worked better.)

I then coloured in the cut out section before popping it back in the main panel .But thinking now that I should have maybe double layered it so it popped out more or left a bit more uncoloured then just the scarves??? 

But actually I quite like it, and the idea of a challenge is to challenge yourself is it not!

:)

Thank you for taking the time to look

xxx

Muse:Christmas Visions

While I've been away on holiday I found myself checking out Muse:Christmas Visions and this was an idea I came up with while I was basking in the sun in Portugal - back to freezing winds and rain now though :( 

I thought it had combined most of the elements that Kimberley had incorporated into her card ..

White and gold colours scheme

Snowflake

One of the sentiment words 

sentiment across the top

gold embossing

but added my own twists to it so feeling reasonably happy with it.... until i tried to photograph the ruddy thing OMG I practically tore my hair out !I had tried to do it outside -  no too rainy and then tried in every room in the house eventually decided to use the light box I'm still not happy with it ,but ladies I have lost the will to take another photograph of it so here it stands !!!!! 

:)

Thank you for taking the time to look

xxx

Muse:Christmas Visions no.4

 

....and finally number 4!! I took inspiration from Cornelia's Sentiment and from of course the group of penguins and the blue background. I,of course had to finish with more liquid pearls as snow 

:)
Thank you for some great inspiration Cornelia, and for getting me back in my crafty room and joining in with this months challenge from Muse:Christmas Visions.I had a ball !!!

(thanks Ardyth when I saw yourlast comment I realised that card no.4 hadn't linked up!)
and

thank you for taking the time to look.

xxx

Muse:Christmas Visions no.3

Another card for the challenge over at Muse:Christmas Visions and admit this is my favourite and one that I might make a heap for Christmas! ..and it came about as a heap of mistakes :)

I had first stamped the Christmas wreath from Clearly besotted and coloured using the colours that were in Cornelias's wreath.But kept making mistakes and so I kept adding them into a pile and by the time I had the one done that I liked with no mistakes, I had this pile beside me so I decided to glue them all together to make it pop out more on the card.

Then it seemed odd to have the wreath just be hanging there in mid air so remembered that Cornelias had an elf wearing a Santa hat and a puny sentiment to go with it . Quick look through my stash and found a  PS bird with hat and added that before finished by adding the puny sentiment ....and of course more liquid pearls to the centre of my snowflakes  (where would I be without them!!!)

Thank you for taking the time to look

xxx

Muse:Christmas Visions no.2

I'm back with card 2 for this months Muse:Christmas Visions challenge I did struggled a bit with this one but hoping you can see where I was inspired ...no ?? then let me help you out.:)

I dont have many reindeer stamps ..ok I have 2! but both seemed not to be quite  right and Ive used them umpteen times before,so thought I would have a look through the stash and came across this old SU set .The stamps kind of matched the baubles hanging off the stags antlers on Cornelia's card (though as you can see I switched the star with a snowflake)

I saw that the baubles were the only pop off colour in an otherwise black and white card so decided to carry that theme through out - and to mimic the stocking hanging off the sentiment ? I added the holly .Hopefully that has made it much more clearer for you :)

 ...and thatnks for taking the time to look

xxx

Muse Christmas Vision no.1

There is a fun theme going on over at Muse:Christmas Visions and there is prizes upi for grabs so why don't you head over and see what they are up to !

 Though I have been occasionally playing along (but not actually been linking up my cards) found myself  mulling over Cornelia's cards while I should have been doing other things :) so gave in and headed up to my crafty room!
I made a very simple card that hopefully you can see was inspired by her very first card ,and the black tape and white houses which caught my eye. I switched the colours around and the type of houses by using this set from Paper smooches and some distress inks...and instead of using the liquid pearls as snow this time I made the dots smaller to represent stars!!

Thank you for taking the time to look 

xxx

CAS on Friday

I was really delighted to be picked as winner for week 112 over at Cas on Friday and also to be asked to be a guest designer this week on their theme of  'Birthday'.

I seem to be enjoying bright and bold colours just now and so I decided to use this Paper Smooches stamp as I was also in the mood for a bit more of promarker colouring.

Then fussy cut it out ..you can probably see that by the uneven bits! I attached it to the sentiment panel.The image has a touch of wink of stella  here and there - but impossible to photograph today for some reason ,and to finish a few gems to sparkle,because who doesn't love a bit of sparkle on their birthday :)

Thank you for taking the time to look 

xxx

Cas on Friday

Primary Colours

I saw over at Cas on Friday that they had a primary colour challenge going on and thought I d join in ! 

I first stamped my flower (a freebie from long ago ) and then coloured it with my promarkers before cutting out with Altenew bold letters twice to give a bit of depth...love these so versatile .

It looked kinda too plain if you know what I mean! so used my perfect pearls to make dots and bring some texture to the card  as well .

Thank you for taking the time to look

Cupcake Inspirations 413

Wow I didn't realise how long it is since I posted !!!

But never mind I have made a card for this weeks Cupcake inspirations colour challenge and when I saw it I straightaway thought of these little fella's.

:)

I stamped and coloured them with promarkers and added a touch of sparkle with a wink of stella pen (got to have sparkle at Christmas!)and then adhered it to a cream textured panel on a red card base.I then thought it looked a bit plain so added some 'snow flakes' using some perfect pearls.

Added the sentiment using a scrap of cream card from the  card panel and my first Christmas card of the year was done ....just another 50+ to do :)

Thanks for taking the time to look

xxx

Muse DT 221

As you will have read this is my farewell post over at Muse :(

My life and that of Mr Jems (Darnells name for my hubby...dont you just love it!)has taken a new direction ,one which I have wanted to do for a very long time and can't wait to get started!

But it will make  cardmaking difficult at times so though  I will continue to make cards (how could I stop!)as often as possible and to take part in the Muse challenges - after all it is my favourite place to find inspiration!!!!I felt that I couldn't commit 100% at the moment, and that's not fair to my very talented teamies .

So for them and to all of the other fabulous card makers that join in with the Muse challenges I wanted to say a heartfelt thank you....

What better way to say it then than through a card :)

Muse was my very first DT role and I have just loved it!.There is nothing to describe that feeling when the post goes live and you hope that someone will play along with you ...dread ,relief and downright covetness ...is that a word?? :) as you see what everyone comes up with and think wow why didn't I think of doing that !

Ladies it has been a blast ,see you in the gallery one last time thank you!

xxx

Time out and other challenges

I was so chuffed that I found my mojo again and I enjoyed making the card for Arydth's birthday sooo much that I found myself wanting to see how they would look done different ways so above is the 2nd one I did ...I really wanted to take part in the  Time Out challenge as my blog friend Michele Ferguson has the honoured guest spot this time, and she has chosen the saying :-

'Flowers and friends make life a garden' 

after I made it I saw the challenge over at the Seven Hill blog and it was to....

I think I have followed what they meant:) by first diecutting out a square,then stamped in memento black ink  Mama Elephant Freestyle florals and then coloured using promarkers by just using the colours red, yellow and blending them it made that lovely orangey red and of course green.

 I then diecut out the 'fabulous' sentiment from (MFT) , I decided to cut out 4 more of the sentiment using scrap card to make it really stack up when I placed it back into the original 'fabulous' diecut - problem was it was now very difficult to see ...was now more of a hidden message on the card so I thought a wink of stella would make it stand out more - mmm no! so I did a close up for you to see it better hopefully :)

Seeing the colours I thought it might also be suitable for the the

 Cupcake Inspirations  challenge too so I'm going to link it up there too !

Phew 3 challenges one card ??unheard of for me!!!!

If you are still with me lol then I made the last one a male card,again with a close up of the 2nd diecut !

I would like to thank you for taking the time to sit through all of what seems a very long post!

Thanks again

xxx

Muse

This week over at Muse there is something different going on ..its a very special birthday party for Ardyth who turned 50 this week !yup yo heard right our favourite card maker has reached the fabulous 50's.

 

 The rules of this weeks challenge  is to ...Choose your Muse from any card that Ardyth has made and                              play along to be in with a chance to win a pressie !!

Well Ardyth I couldn't let such a special birthday pass without sending you a virtual  birthday card.My problem was choosing one from the vast amount so actually I chose a few ....

I chose the colours from the butterflies ,the flowers and inlaid die from the second card and |I'm hoping you can see I the number in the centre of the card with the  sentiment going across it from the last one!The number i put on was of course the big 5-0 stacked up and inlaid back in.

(closer view of the numbers can you spot it??)

I was so happy to do this card as for the last few weeks or should I say months I have cardmakers block :( mojo wasn't even on the same planet as me and I was getting so frustrated how do you deal with something like that??  everyday I would go to make a card and ...blank!!So delighted to be back in the game again :) :) :)

Thanks for taking the time to look 

xxx 

Muse DT 216

For my card this week for Muse, I made one in a really simple in design but to make it pop a bit I stamped and coloured it some really bright colours and finished with a wink of stella .Almost impossible to see and photograph I know

 !!!!I You will by now know by now, how I love the texture of this card stock and thinks it works especially great with these simple designs

  I find myself drawn to this type of brightly coloured cards just now and can see myself making a batch of these  with different sentiments.

I hope it will inspire you to join in this week with us and can't wait to see what you come up with 😊

Thanks for popping in by for a look

xxx

Cupcake inspiration

We had a lovely holiday in Portugal last week (although the mosquitoes loved me a bit toooo much!)

 I have friends who has moved over there in the last year and we were lucky enough to be able to rent the apartment next door to them and even the weather was great .... came back to snow hail sleet and rain!!!!!!

So my card will be on its way to say a huge thank you to Shirley and Chris for making our stay such a great one.

I used the clearly besotted feeling sheepish stamp set,love the punny sentiments.

I also think it fits in perfectly with the Cupcake Inspiration challenge this week,so i will be adding it there.

Thank you for  taking the time to pop over and have a look

xxx 

Muse DT 212

For  this week's Muse card I have made a very simple card  using Altenew watercolour wonders stamp set with stormy sky distress inks for both panels and and love how this turned out ...

I hope you do too and will inspire you to play along with us again this week!

The sentiment is because  by the time you read this we will be in sunny Portugal for a weeks holiday wahoo! It was one of those spur of the moment decisions and I can't wait a family friend is there and can't wait to have a good old catch up with her!

So thanks for taking the time to look this week if i am a bit slow in commenting please bear with me our apartment in Portugal has WIFI but  I have been warned it can be patchy at times!

Thank you for taking the time to pop in by hope to see you in the gallery! 

P.s I have been using picasa to edit my pictures but not very happy with it anyone got any other ones I could try??Thanks

xxx

Cupcake Inspiration 400th Challenge

I went on the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge Pinterest board looking for inspiration for their challenge this week with flowers in my mind and ended up looking out this stamp set from SSS instead ...not much difference is there :)

I think it was the colours that drew me but there is such a lot of inspiration had to follow them on Pinterest!

This week is their 400th challenge... wahoo ladies that is some inspiration! and they are asking that you make a card that combines one of their past inspiration themes with a birthday card .There is also prizes up for grabs too!Head over there and have a look.

Thanks for taking the time to pop in by

xxx