Guest Designer Post - Inkspirational

Hi Friends,

I'm thrilled to be joining the ladies over at Inkspirational Challenges as Guest Designer for the latest challenge, Cue Card below!

I have to admit I racked my brains for ages trying to come up with something unique to use from my stash. I couldn't find any play-related stamp sets although, following some online research / window shopping, there's now plenty on my wish list! 

In the end I decided to go with a musical theme and some rather inky and not in my usual 'Clean and Simple' style backgrounds. Uniko recently released some music related stamps and I'd also purchased a few Visible Image sets at Christmas, which I was keen to ink up again so here goes:

Both cards use the 'Music Speaks' set by Visible Image with a 'You Rock' sentiment and musical notes from Uniko. The background on the first card is created by 'smooshing' Distress Inks, whereas the second one is a Brusho based creation! 

I hope you like what I've created for the challenge and you'll feel inspired to play along too. I don't doubt that there'll be some spectacular ideas from the regular design team HERE and I'd like to thank them for inviting me to join them today! 

Happy Crafting and thanks for your visit today!

Mad about Distress Oxides

Hello Friends,

It's amazing what a little time away from work can do for my mojo! Although back at work this week I've thoroughly enjoyed playing with inky blending and Distress Oxides and only just getting round to posting my cards here. In fact I'm only just experimenting with these inks having bought 4 of them about 18 months ago. Unfortunately the colours I picked didn't really blend nicely together so I simply had to buy a few more!!!

I only have 13 colours in total ... my favourites, which I know I'll use and blend nicely. I love bright colours and particularly rainbow tones so you can no doubt guess which inks I've gone for!

So a bundle of 'same but different' resist technique cards using the Marvellous Mendhi set by Uniko and various stamp company sentiments.

I think this has to be my favourite colour combo ... using Blueprint Sketch, Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio. I've a feeling this has an Altenew sentiment.

The sentiment on this one is Clearly Besotted and I've used Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade and Worn Lipstick for my colour combo. 

I think this is another Altenew sentiment (apologies I just grabbed a load of stamp sets and pulled off sentiments I liked to heat emboss en masse! I've used the same colour combo as the previous card with a little Picked Raspberry too and inked more randomly than the previous one. 

This sentiment is by Mama Elephant and the distress ink colours are Peacock Feathers, Wilted Violet, Picked Raspberry and Spiced Marmalade.

I'm still experimenting with different blends but hope you like these ones so far. Thanks for calling by.

Crazy for MORE Stencils

Hi Friends, I'm zipping in with another 'just for the fun of it post' featuring a bunch of stencil inspired cards. If you visited my blog a few days ago HERE you'll see I was showcasing stencils by fellow blogger and friend Sarah G of Funky Fossil Designs and I've still got more of those to share once they are made up into cards BUT I was loving the colour combo I used on the previous post and decided to root out some older stencils in my stash and bring them back to life ... here goes:

This one uses a 'handmade' stencil - I die-cut several circles in some acetate then randomly inked through the shapes in my favoured colour combo using Distress Oxides (Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron and Blueprint Sketch). The die-cut 'happy' is by CUT-plorations and it's mounted on a stitched circle die by Simon Says Stamp with a 'birthday' sentiment from Uniko.

Next up using a trio of Bokeh stencils by Simon Says Stamp and using the same colour combo, I rotated each stencil 4 times to achieve the clusters in each corner. The Sentiment is heat embossed with clear embossing powder and is by Mama Elephant, mounted on a stitched square by MFT Die-namics

I think this has to be my all-time favourite stencil and one I frequently go back to. It's the Concentric Circles by My Favorite Things, with a sentiment strip featuring 'Fabulous' by Uniko: Explosion Additions and 'Friend' die-cut by Paper Smooches

If you follow the Uniko blog HERE you'll have seen a balloon stencil released with the last bundle of new goodies. I didn't buy it because I new I had this similar one from Neat & Tangled but I was inspired by the stencilled balloon creations from the DT and decided to give it a whirl with this one. The 'Happy Birthday' sentiment is by Impression Obsessions.

Thanks for calling by today and I hope you're having some crafty fun!

Less is More #369

Hello my crafty friends, it's time to announce our latest challenge at Less is More and we're stepping back in time with what's required for this one! All the details are on the main challenge blog HERE and here's our cue card.


You might decide to use a technique or stamp set that's not seen the light of day in a while or an additional element/embellishment that's perhaps no longer deemed 'fashionable' in crafting circles at the moment. 
Unbelievably I've 3 cards to share with you today ... having had a 2 week Easter break I had a little extra time to craft. These first 2 use handmade paper / mulberry paper I think it was called although this one is a thicker variety than others. 
For the first card I used a Columbus scalloped circle die from Mama Elephant to create a frame for the handmade paper. I stamped the sentiment from WPlus9 around the circle and mounted the 'wonderful' die-cut sentiment on foam to hide the balloon string. The balloon is from the Happy Little Stampers set 'Simply Said' and it's coloured using Promarkers.

This one uses a glittery embossed handmade / mulberry paper which I've adhered to some teal cardstock then used a die-cut 'Happy Birthday' sentiment from Impression Obsessions

Last but not least I have to admit that I own hundreds of these papery flowers in my stash; all different shapes, sizes and colours and I simply couldn't resist using them along with 2 mini sparkly brads in the centre (another of those no-longer-fashionable craft items).
I used some of the foliage stamps from Altenew Vintage Flowers to create a backdrop for the paper blooms but I'm not sure it's working for me! The sentiment is by Happy Little Stampers, our sponsor this month at Less is More.

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies  over on the Less is More blog HERE and as I mentioned earlier, our sponsor for this challenge is Happy Little Stampers so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we'll announce at the start of next month. 

I hope you'll feel inspired to play along with and have some crafty fun along the way.
Thanks for calling by today!

Uniko - Wishfully Thinking of Summer

Hello there, I've another 'just for fun post' here which I'm coinciding with a DT Inspiration post for Uniko, which you can find HERE and there's a sneaky peek at my card at the end of this post!

Having spent a few days away in London last week I discovered lots of colour and pattern inspiration from various shops and displays so I couldn't wait to re-create my take on some with my cards once I got back.

So here's a card I've made using the latest sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches and inspired by some clothing fabric that caught my eye!

Here's my inspiration ...

The fabric definitely has a summery feel so, wishfully thinking the season would arrive soon, I pulled out the Paradise and Paradise Foliage sets from Uniko and set about creating a background on red cardstock. Firstly, the images were stamped in Hero Arts Unicorn White pigment ink then moving the red card slightly re-stamped  some of them Sapphire Blue ink by Altenew. The sentiment is from the Simply Said collection and here's the sketch I've used:

While I had the stamps on my desk I thought I'd create a card for some DT inspiration over on the Uniko blog and as promised here's a little sneaky peek! 

As always thanks for stopping by today and I'll be back with the latest challenge for Less is More tomorrow so hope you'll join me again then.

In Love with Stencils

Hi Friends, I can't remember the last time I got round to posting on my blog just for the fun of it BUT today I have some cards to share featuring STENCILS! 

These little beauties seem to have slipped into the back of my stash for far too long but with the stunning inspiration from my super duper blog buddy Sarah of Funky Fossils Designs and her new stencil creation venture (sold HERE) I just can't get enough of them! I just wish there were more hours in the day to play! 

So teamed with a bundle of Distress Oxide inks here's my creations and if you follow my blog regularly you'll notice I get fixated with colour combos and just can't stop myself when I find a combo I love! 

This one uses the Totally Triangular Stencil and I've been fascinated with the 'turn-around' stamps and stencils by other companies so decided to give it a go with this stencil although it's not necessarily designed to work that way. The die-cut sentiment is from Neat and Tangled with a 'birthday' greeting from Clearly Besotted

 

Using the same colour combo and Triangular stencil but this time with a cropped section of the stencilled panel a 'Smile' die-cut by Lil'inker Designs with a 'You Passed' sentiment by Clearly Besotted. 

The die-cut sentiments and strips of coloured card on all of these cards are coloured using coordinating promarkers. 

 

Ok a tad early for Father's Day but there's nothing like getting organised and I just love geometric designs for the guys so this one worked a treat. Remarkably the stencil is called 'geometric' too! The die-cut Happy is from CUT-plorations with the 'Father's Day' from Happy Little Stampers.

Next up a male / female 2-Fer of sorts! I masked off part of the stencil (called Triangle Grid) and inked through it with blues and teal colours and the other half adding some purple tones too. Can you tell I just love the 'Hooray' die-cut by Neat and Tangled? Coloured again with Promarkers to coordinate with the stencilling and a Clearly Besotted mini 'so to speak' sentiment on the first one and 'It's your day' on the second card is by Neat and Tangled.

I'm heading over to Addicted to Stamps and More for their Make your Mark week. I hope stencils are accepted along with Promarker painted sentiments!

As always thanks for calling by and if you feel inspired by these stencil designs and fancy purchasing a few, very reasonably priced ones then pop across to Sarah's Folksy shop HERE. Super efficient service and beautifully packaged too.

Less is More #368

Hello my crafty friends, wishing you all a very Happy Easter Weekend and hope the Easter bunny delivers!

I can't believe yet another fortnight has skipped by and I'm here with our latest challenge    over at Less is More. It's a Lucky Dip month as there are 5 Saturdays in the month so to spice things up a little we decided to ask Aileen of Colour & Sparkle, winner of the January challenges if she'd like to provide a CASE card for us! Thankfully she agreed!
Here's our Cue Card for this fortnight's challenge, followed by Aileen's elegant floral beauty then my interpretation!

Aileen's Card
For my card I used my favourite stamp set EVER from Happy Little Stampers 'Butterfly Birthday' along with a die-cut 'Happy' word die from STAMPlorations. I flipped the layout to portrait for this one, stamped and heat-embossed my Butterflies in Sterling Silver embossing powder before colouring with Promarkers.

I'd like to pop this card in a couple of challenges:

Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with their products

I'm also sharing a little DT Inspiration over on the Uniko blog HERE so here's a sneaky peak of my card, again using Aileen's card as my CASE study with stamps from Uniko. 

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE and we're delighted to welcome back Happy Little Stampers which has kindly agreed to sponsor our challenges through April.  Do play along for a chance of a prize, which we'll announce at the start of next month and have a fun and crafty time.




Thanks for calling by today!

Uniko Challenge #46

Hi there, I'm here with our latest challenge over at Uniko and here's the cue card to explain what's required, if you've been following the blog you'll have seen half of the design team announced the challenge a few weeks ago but I'm here with a reminder. 

... and here's my first card using the Uniko Style Floral set with a 'Happy' Sentiment from the Festive Sentiments set, released at the end of last year and the 'Some Bunny' set for the word 'Easter'. I've stamped the images and sentiments with Altenew Inks as they're great for layering in the colour families. 

For my second card I used the Organics Additions set and stamped the images in more Altenew Inks. They didn't stamp quite as brightly as I would have liked so I added some additional shading with Promarker pens in similar colours. The mini florals are mainly from the Background Builders: Vines set and Flower Power. It's amazing what you find that mixes and matches with Uniko sets when you flick through all the stamp sets. Having recently changed my storage set up into 2 large ringbinders with x-cut pocket inserts for my Uniko stamps, it's now so much easier to find what I'm looking for. 

I'd like to link this one up at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge as they are having one of their 'Anything Goes' weeks! 

Our Guest Designer for this challenge is Michele Ferguson, one of our previous Uniko Challenge winners. Do pop along and visit her blog and leave a friendly word and some love.

You have until Friday, 20th April to link up to the challenge and all the details you need about prizes and how to play can be found over at Uniko HERE

As always thanks for calling by my blog today and I hope you feel inspired and will play along with us!