March yellow challenge

Over at Kool Kitty, the 2017 Pantone colour challenge for this month is yellow.  Not really one of my go-to colours, but I got onto a bit of a roll and have made four!  Well, I wasn't happy with the first one, so I did a second one which gave me the idea for the third, which led to a fourth using the leftover bit ...... you know how it goes :-)

Memory Box Butterflies, Tattered Lace flourish and SU sentiment.  The background paper is from Craft Creations, the butterfly bases are a bronze pearlescent cardstock, doesn't show well in the photo :-)

More MB butterflies .... I had this white die-cut leftover from the pink inlaid card I did the other day, so just popped it over the same yellow paper matted onto matching Bazzill.

Then it occurred to me that I could do another inlaid card over the yellow paper, so that was the third one.  But then I had another white die-cut leftover ...... so .....

I had this background already embossed and smooshed over with Distress ink, it does have yellow in the mix ....

That's four cards from a colour I don't really use very much.  Not bad :-)

Buy it - Try it: Steampunk birthday card

I bought two Sheena Douglas dies earlier in the month and thought the clock would be perfect for a crafty friend's birthday card.  Yes it's the same card, photos taken in two different lights!!

The background is embossed in a swirly folder, then coloured with Distress stains (another BiTi) in black, pewter and bronze.
I attached the die-cut, but it needed something more  ....... the die hadn't quite cleanly cut in one place and I decided to put a butterfly over it - in fact this card was going to be called Butterfly at 7 o'clock LOL.  But it looked a bit lonely, so I added two more!!  The die set is from Memory Box.
Originally I had planned to put a sentiment banner under the clock, but I had also tried out the SD balloon die when cutting the clock and I though the 'undercarriage' part would go very well under the clock! 
So this one evolved a bit in the making, but I am very pleased with it :-)

Inlaid Pink Butterfly birthday card

This card started as a failed background!  I had smooshed some card with distress inks, spattered some water over and blotted off, then over stamped with some grungy spatters.  But I didn't like the end result and put it to one side.  Then I saw an idea in a magazine (not sure which one) about some new cover up dies from Memory Box, which have a negative image cut result and the magazine had placed these over patterned or inked backgrounds.  This made me wonder about using my own dies in a similar way and I chose this Memory Box butterfly.

The layers are, from base up: card blank, burgundy cardstock mat (which needs to be wider but I'm going with it!), splotchy background, white cardstock with negative die cut - I kept all the bits of this as some would need to be slotted back in.  Then the same die used on pink cardstock fits into the negative space and the three pieces between the leaves/stems and the butterflies are stuck back in.  I cut separate antennae from another MB butterfly set, in the same burgundy as the mat.
If I had planned a bit more as to where I was going with this, I would have used Stick It sheet adhesive on the pink die cut and white top piece - it was a bit fiddly doing it with Herma!!
I really like this inlaid effect, must try it with more of my dies.  After I have ordered some more Stick It ...... LOL.

Wedding Anniversary card

Our 32nd wedding anniversary was last Thursday.  We went off to Oxford for a couple of days to celebrate, had a nice time wandering around Blenheim Palace and its gardens.  We had meant to visit a couple of museums on the following day, but I had wrecked my feet going round the gardens, so we'll have to leave that for another time.  The hotel was nice, but the room didn't have glasses in, just those plastic tumblers which would tip over if you poured something from a bottle into them... so we drank our Prosecco by the mug instead!!  And very nice it was too :-)
This is the anniversary card I made for DH.

As usual, mirri and photography are not the best of friends.... It is very shiny in real life!!  I embossed some Bazzill Diamond Bling cardstock for the background and matted it onto silver mirri.  Then I die-cut the heart (Robert Addams) and sentiment (Tonic) from the same mirri.
Simple but effective, as they say :-)

Rose birthday card

I made several cards with Chocolate Baroque rose stamps a little while ago, but forgot I hadn't blogged this Mesh Rose one!

I stamped in Memento and coloured with Copics.  Then trimmed to size, added the sentiment (Stamping all Day) and simply matted onto a card blank. 
It did take me a few attempts to get a complete impression, I must admit.  But I have now invested in a stamp mat, which should help with the more stubborn stamps in my collection, so must try this one again!

Buy it - Try it: Tie dye thank you card

I recently bought the new Tie dyed stamp set from SU. 

After a little play with the three different spiral motifs, I stamped them in three colours, six times, then matted the images in two each of the same three different colours and put them onto 3" card blanks.  Only three shown in the photo!  A nice little set of six thank you cards :-)

Monochrome in Aqua

I was having a play around making an inky background .... didn't have much thought beyond wanting to use a stencil as part of that background.  This is the result:

I made a smooshy distress ink base and stencilled the dots.  Then I stamped the butterfly (SU) and masked before stamping the script (Darkroom Door?).  The swirl (Hero Arts) and tiny butterflies (Daliart) were next, then a sentiment (HobbyArt).
Sometimes it's just nice to play :-)

Buy it - Try it: Vertical Greetings stamp set

Another couple of cards made by using water colour markers to colour the stamp instead of ink.  The stamps set is from SU - Vertical Greetings.

I was very pleased with the three identical panels on this one, until I realised that I had left no room for a sentiment!!!  So I improvised with a tiny stamp, punched out into a small scalloped circle.

Second attempt - I used the vertical sentiment from the set on the centre panel and I like the overall effect much better :-) 

Out of the Drawer - daisy stem birthday card

I have had this Stampendous stamp for a while now, but it was still unchristened .... so I decided to combine it with a technique I have been re-visiting lately, colouring stamps with watercolour markers and then stamping the image.  This is something I used to do years ago, but had forgotten about it until a demo at the Chailey workshop with Nicky (contact nickyalevy@btinternet.com ).  So I have invested in a combination of SU and Distress water based markers, pulled out my old Marvys and thrown out the really dried up ones (!) and kept the rest!

The stamp has bees above the stems, but I chose not to stamp those and did the butterflies separately.  I also decided not to colour in the daisies as I like the outline effect :-)  The sentiment stamp is from Visible Image.
A nice simple card which didn't take too long to do :-)

Pin-spired Wednesday - Screen card

I have been meaning to try this style of card for ages, then someone at the Chailey workshop (contact nickyalevy@btinternet.com ) had a decoupage kit with a ready cut screen card in it, so I just had to make one myself :-)  I have a few of these Pinned, one example is here.  The effect can be varied with your choice of border punch and the whole card folds up to fit in a standard 6 x 4 envelope.

I had previously made a couple of blanks as practice, but not decorated them.  The paper is from an Authentique 6" paper pad which I had in my tote, and the flowers are SU punches, as is the bracket punch used to make the 'legs'.  The border is a Fiskars punch.
Now there is a standard way to make these, but I have customised mine :-)  The standard method is to cut a strip 11" x 6", border punch along one edge, then score at 2.75 inches, then at 5.5 and 8.25.  Use the bracket punch at the base of each panel, but line up the card inside it so it only punches half of itself.
But .... I like the pattern repeats of the border to 'line up' with the scoring .... not that I'm obsessive or anything .... LOL.  So I customised it.  I cut a 12 x 12" cardstock sheet into two 12 x 6" strips.  Use the border punch as before.  Then count the pattern repeats - there were 29 open scallops on the card above, the nearest number divisible by 4 is 28.  So I cut off one scallop and scored a line every 7 scallops.
Really pleased with this - I will photograph the next one step by step for a tutorial, but I think I need to try out a few different borders first :-)