MCV21 and cas on Sunday

After the almighty struggle with the Muse card  last week, this one for Muse Christmas Visions sort of made itself and I think I have incorporated most of the same elements that our very, very talented Guest Designer Ingrid Blackburn has used !!

I started by using a SU roller to make the holly,then over - stamped that with some script using 'old paper' distress ink.I then mounted it on black card, made a banner and heat embossed my sentiment in gold and snipped the ends to make it flag tailed. Next I cut out a sprig of holly and adding some red sequins for berries

.Now I really like a simple panel in the middle -as you know! :) - but this time it seemed to lack something .So found a scrap of dotty embossed card (thanks Michele for reminding me about using my embossing folders! ) and mounted it on that.... And totally different from my usual style but think I actually like it !

Think this would also qualify for the CAS on Sunday challenge as they are asking  for polka dots as their theme.

Thanks for taking the time to look

xxx

Muse 134

The Muse card this week is by the talented Anita.

When I saw Anita's soft and delicate card I just loved it,who wouldn't simply beautiful, but not so simple for me I'm afraid found this a real challenge! I have spent all week trying different ideas until finally I came up with this,not sure if I like it and so was in two minds whether to post it .

Problem is I think its missing more of Anita's elements than there is on it !!!

But I did take inspiration from -

The colours pink,blue and green.I used chalks to get the softness and originally heat embossed the sentiment but it took the colours of the chalks and just looked grubby.So just stamped with the versamark instead.Liked that better and loved the look when I rubbed some directly onto the paper (that's the splatter look btw) and manage to fix it there with hair spray :)

Central panel (eh the black is still sitting in my desk,sorry Anita had a senior moment)

White circles -well that's my sequins! :)

Thanks for taking the time to look

xxx

Playing cards with Michele and friends

When Michele asked me to play cards with her I said yes please ! but this is a first for me and never having done it before I got it slightly wrong :( that is why we are CASing one of Michele's card ...weeeeell she did tell me to pick a card that I adored!

I loved Michele's CTS card and her feel better one ,and so wanted to give it a go but the one idea I kept coming up with was for  a masculine card and so here it is:-

Firstly,I cut two panels using a spellbinders die so they were the same height,then using my stamp-a-majig I stamped my image in black. Then stamped it again using versamark which I heat embossed  with clear embossing powder as  I wanted to keep that side of the image really crisp(but not sure if you can see it on the photo sorry) then on the red panel I stamped  in versamark and heat embossed it in white ...did the same mistake as you Michele and forgot to use my embosssing buddy!- finally stamped my sentiment ,trimmed my panels so they fitted over each other , and mounted them on black cardstock
Can't wait to see what everyone else has come up with!
xxx

Time Out

While browsing the current challenges I found that the Time Out challenge this week is to CASe Tracey's soft and delicate looking card .

Well today I was just in the mood for some colouring in ,I find it very soothing after a busy day at work.

My inspiration came from Tracey's ;-

  vellum ,
white embossing
colours ( I used 3 similar colours ),

image, centre stage 

  sentiment black and under image

 I stamped my favourite image for colouring in from Clearly Besotted heat embossed it in white and using distress inks and a blender pen coloured on top of the vellum.To add my own twist I took another favourite of mine a popped up panel and before I put it all together,  stamped the sentiment... squint! so yes the sentiment is a save,but I do like this sentiment feel it can do all sorts of occasions birthdays sympathy ,get well ...well you get the idea:)
 Thanks for taking the time to look
xxx

MCV 20

This week it the talented Betty Wrights turn to be the Muse over at Muse:Christmas Vision and she made a very traditional Christmas card .

I took my inspiration from her wreath and using W9's woodland wreath first stamped with Su lucky limeade on cream card stock  and  this stamp set has a woody wreath too ,so stamped that in the middle. I liked the sequins going round the wreath but my wreath is quite small so they looked too big so settled for using one of the small flower stamps in the set and die cut them out and mounted them to give a bit of dimension.It looked a bit bare but with flowers all around it needed something to balance it out so I used the bow stamp as my focal point at the bottom of my card .

I then added my sentiment in the centre as Betty had.

I diecut red paper  and cream cardstock with lawn fawn stitched rectangles and mounted it onto a red card base.

Before I go I would like to ask a question I see some truly beautiful cards on flickr and would love to comment but for the life of me I cant find how too,can anyone tell me how its done?

Thanks for taking the time to look 

xxx

Muse133

When I first saw Michele's stunning card over at Muse I was gobsmacked !...How did she manage to make a card  look soooo elegant while using my nemsis DP???

  Now I;m definitely NOT a DP kinda person unless it's along the lines of stripes, dots etc any other pattern and it's heaved off quicker than it went on .!!That being the case you can imagine how much flowery DP I have lying around ...thats right.. none :( So first tried making my own,total disaster and then used my SU rollers still not right

Then I remembered that I had bought digi papers from Pink Petticoat when I first started making cards and thats how I came to find this one .....never in a million years would I have tried putting this DP on a card!!!! BUT......

I LOVE IT

( it looks way better in RL ,for a start it doesn't look like there is a wavy line down the side, or is this just my computer ??hubby changed the moniter to a bigger one and I  don't like it seems to distort everything)

and  where I got my inspiration from  Michele's card is the

Flowery DP - I added bisque liquid pearls to the centre of my flowers

 Butterfly

Vellum

Heat embossing

Sentiment

And a huge thank you to Michele who made me try something new and I liked it :)... and have you noticed no rectangle panel in the middle !
Think I might just pop this over to Darnells NBUS challenge too!

Thank you so much for taking the time to look

xxx

Time out & NBUS

'Take some TIME OUT to 'Make your Mark'

Over at the TIME OUT challenge they are asking you to make your mark and over at Darnell's blog she has a NBUS challenge going on (if you don't know what that means it is Never Before Used Stuff!)  Yesterday I had chalked this panel only to find it didn't work for my project ,so decided to use this snowman which was out of a bargain bucket at Hobbycraft for only a £1! I coloured him with my promarkers and as I loved the look of the liquid pearls for snow on yesterdays project added some here.Then die cut a snowflake and added the sentiment from Uniko Studio_ stunning snowflakes_ d another Christmas card is done!  

Thank you for taking the time to look ! 

xxx
P.s don't ask me why what I have written is highlighted Mr Blogger at his best!

I have tried and tried to change it back but it ain't shifting grrr.

MCV19

Chriss Blagrave is our Muse over at the Christmas Visions this week and she asked us if we were country and townies... well I am most definitely a townie! Hence my card this week .

My inspiration I took from Chriss's beautiful starry night scene was :-

 The skyline die,I used a clearly besotted one cut to fit the panel I had coloured using distressed ink ,I am sooooo bad at distressing,I'm hoping that you think its clouds!I much prefer using chalks but they were too light :(   

.Star ...ok I used one large one rather than lots.

.Colours 

.Red heart

When I first looked at Chriss's card I didn't realise that the background was ALL stars I thought some of it was snow! yup I need to wear my glasses more often,if I could remember where I left them I would.:)

So thats why my background has some liquid pearl snow on it lol

Thanks for taking the time to look

xxx

Muse

Over at the Muse challenge it is the turn of Joan to provide the Muse card and isn't it a beaut??

 

 and this is my take on it.........

I may have been doing cards for a few years now, but really short on sentiments that actually say more than happy birthday etc.(mmm may have to rectify that ...) So apologies this is all I could come up with .  

I took my inspiration from:-

The rows of script 

The colours...I reversed then slightly!

A popped up panel (just for you)

Flower

To make the SU stamp look a bit more interesting I used an ombre ink from hero arts.I had intended to  make it smaller and tilt it at an angle but my OCD took over ..... :)

Thanks for taking the time to look !

xxx

Susan's 50th

My friend Susan turns 50 today and this is the card that I made her.Susan is the reason that I got into card making,but unfortunately for me she has went back to her first love which is sewing.She makes the most amazing quilts ,crafts,cushions ...you get the idea  and she tried to get me into it ...unfortunately I'm more a wonder web kinda person.:(

I really wanted to make this card to be about her love of sewing  and so originally did  manage to sew together a few patchwork hexagons and at first thought I could make the number 50 out of them (even sewed a few more together Susan) but it was a disaster they frayed and just looked like rejects from Frankenstein's clothes!!!!

So went back to the old drawing board, and when I saw the spare fabric that I had used ,decided to cover a piece of card with it .I found it easier to iron the fabric onto the card as that gave me the marks to follow for pulling it tight and folding. Trimmed and glued it (no wonder web used at all hee he!) 

Then I heat embossed the Uniko studio 'fabulous' on a piece of vellum and the &,added the numbers 50 and the daisy and gem to finish (using snippets from my scrap bag) and actually felt well pleased with it until I noticed the little bulge at the top grrrr but still think I can go play at the

 Snippets Playground this week!

Thanks for taking the time to look

xxx

Geometric Patterns

Clearly Besotted were having a clear out and a lot of their stamps dies were have price and more! So when I saw this geometric set and matching dies just had to have them.

Was having a play on a scrap bit of paper when I made this pattern and no stamp-a-majig so easy to line them up.Pity (I didn't press hard enough on the last row but hey ho in RL its not so glaringly obvious! ) but still thought that I would enter it over at Virginia's View Challenge as they are looking for Geometric patterns .Feel this will do one of my  nephews, so another male card done!

The colours are SU lucky limeade and tempting turquoise.

Thanks for looking

xxx

Muse131

When  I first saw Carols beautiful colourful card  the patterns on the feathers caught my eye .I only have a small feather die and when I first tried putting on a pattern and colour to them it wasn't right somehow.Then by happy accident as I was practising on another scrap of card I turned it over and  realised I had used a piece that had a little scene on it ...and the rest was history.... : )

(The scene was one that I had been trying out for a long time friends retirement card ,he has been a fish house manager here in Aberdeen for nigh on 45 years! So I wanted something that reflected the sea and the lighthouse that he sees every day on his way to work and thought this stamp would fit the bill) Don't have a small  retirement stamp as yet:) so settled for just best wishes and will add... "on your retirement "inside.

I know that my card looks nothing like Carols card but the Muse challenge is about getting inspiration from the Muse card....she says desperately!! So here's where I got my inspiration from :-

The feathers (Can you spot them?) which are stamped and coloured with SU markers 

with some of Carols colours then popped up.

The orientation of the card.

The white panel mounted on a coloured one

Sentiment under the image.

I would also like to enter this into Pixies Snippets Playground as apart from the card base the rest were made out scraps and snippets, you must head over and have a look-a lovely bunch of ladies led by Di (must say thanks Di for being one of your weekly picks )  - and not only great inspiration from the other ' snippeties' but you have a chance of winning some fab prizes!While there I noticed that there was another challenge I could enter  - The Cuttlebug Mania , as I had used my cuttlebug to cut out the panels with spellbinders nestibilities, and for my feathers used a Memory box feather die
Wow first time ever I have managed to combine 3 challenges I think :)

Thanks for taking the time to look

xxx