Simples Sunday Watercolour

Unusually for me I didn't get round to making a card for yesterday's new challenge over at LIM which is 'Watercolour'. However, after going to bed last night and still being awake at 3 a.m, I decided I might just as well get up and what else can you do at that time of the morning other than craft??
I don't have many stamp sets that lend themselves to watercolouring but I thought this flower, from Flower Shop, would fit the bill quite nicely. I started by stamping a flower onto Whisper White using the new In Colour Blackberry Bliss, added a post-it mask before adding another flower then set to with my Aqua Painter. I began by blending the ink already stamped then added a little more ink to give more depth. I then repeated this on a scrap of Whisper White and punched this flower out with the Pansy Punch. The stripey image from Gorgeous Grunge was stamped in Crumb Cake and the sentiment from Four You in Blackberry Bliss before matting onto Crumb Cake cardstock and then onto a card blank. The punched flower was added using dimensionals and a few Basic Pearls added to the centre.

I hope you have a lovely Sunday whatever you're doing. For me it's ironing, shopping, visiting Mum then getting ready for a bit of a hectic week at work - and it's another weekend over!!!

Back soon

Margaret x

Oh dear I nearly forgot to say a big thank you to the ladies at LIM for choosing one of my cards to showcase this week and also to all the people who have left me such lovely comments - I really do appreciate it x

Pleasant Poppies

The LIM challenge today is a card with flowers and I have two cards to show you, made from one background stamp, Pleasant Poppies.
I started by inking the large background stamp with Real Red and Pear Pizzazz markers, stamped onto white cardstock, then coloured the image in using a blender pen. (The whole stamped image is shown top right). I then cut of the panel of three poppies on the right of the image to make my second cut. For the card above I used the Circle Framelits to cut out the image and this was matted onto a larger circle of white cardstock. After fixing to the card blank I did a spot of paper piercing just on the left side of the circles. A sentiment from Simply Sketched and a butterfly from Papillon Potpourri were added.

For the second card I took the panel which had been cut from the large stamped image, matted it onto Real Red and added a sentiment from Four You. Two Basic Rhinestones were added to the banner and job done!!


Have a great weekend, enjoy the sunshine and I'll be back soon

Margaret x

LIM - One Layer Thank You

Hello again. I can't believe it's been almost a week since my last blog post, where has that time gone? I have been busy with family, work and also some crafting but the cards I have been making are commissioned cards so I'm not able to show you until the 'occasions' are over.
However I am back today with an entry to this week's LIM challenge which is a One Layer Thank You card.
I used a 4" card blank and masked a 2cm strip across the card with post-it's before stamping an image from Papillon Potpourri in Pacific Point and Summer Starfruit. After removing the mask I stamped the sentiment from Four You and then simply scored four lines to add a border to the butterflies. A few tiny rhinestones were added to finish the card.

I hope you have a great weekend and manage to dodge those heavy showers that are promised!

Back soon

Margaret x

 

Simples Sunday meets Frugal Friday!

Firstly I must explain the title of today's post. I came across a new challenge the other day set by Lizy, a fellow SU team member, called Frugal Friday where she is challenging people to use up those scraps lying around on your desk. Well I think I have enough scraps lying around to make enough cards to open my own shop so here is just one card that I have put together this morning using the scraps at the top of my pile (Lizy also wanted us to post a photo of the scraps on our desk, so you can see that below)
My card base is Naturals Ivory, matted with Wisteria Wonder and a Very Vanilla panel stamped with the Woodgrain stamp. The tag was made with the Scallop Tag Topper punch and decorated with Petite Petals, a sentiment from Four You and a scrap of Wisteria Wonder Ruffled Ribbon. Three Bitty Butterflies were added along with a few Basic Pearls. The only thing that was done especially for this card was the stamping of the sentiment and the addition of the pearls - even the card base was lying around waiting to be used!!
Why not set yourself the challenge and then post your card on Lizy's blog (link above).
All that leaves is for me to wish you a great Bank Holiday weekend and a photo of my (untidy) desk!

 

 

Margaret x

Simples Sunday - Monkeying Around!

A very quick post from me today with a card for Simples Sunday and this week's LIM sketch challenge.
This is simply two circles cut with the Circles Framelits Collection with two monkeys from Zoo Babies punched with a circle punch. I drew a line between the monkeys with a marker pen and stamped the stars, from the SAB set Banner Blast. This was then fixed to the card using dimensionals with a sentiment from Four You and some Basic Rhinestones which I coloured with permanent markers - Simples!

Have a great Sunday and pop back soon

Margaret x

Simples Sunday

For this week's Simples Sunday card I have used the challenge from LIM - 'Three' of something.
I have used some DSP from the Sale-a-Bration pack, Sweet Sorbet, and punched three circles with the 1" punch. This was matted onto a strip of Crisp Cantaloupe cardstock and then onto a white card blank.
The flowers are a stamp from Petite Petals, punched out with the co-ordinating punch, with black pearls from my own stash placed in the centres. The card was finished off with a sentiment from Four You.

Hope you're having a great weekend

Back soon

Margaret x

Card Swap

Today's card is one I made for this month's card swap. Jane set the challenge to use embossing so I chose the Stripes Embossing Folder. I took a piece of Whisper White cardstock and stamped images from Stippled Blossoms - a much neglected set which needs to come out again! It is a 2-step set so I stamped the base flower in Pink Pirouette and, using my stamp-a-ma-jig, overstamped using Rose Red with a few Pear Pizzaz leaves dotted around. I then ran this through the BigShot placing just the bottom half of the card in the embossing folder. It is matted onto Rose Red and then onto a card blank with the addition of a sentiment from Four You, punched with the Scallop Oval Punch and matted onto an Apothecary Accents Framelit.

That's all for today, back soon

Margaret x

Simples Sunday One Layer Card

I am a little late with my entry to the LIM challenge this week as, yesterday, I took part in a Blog Hop so I am combining it with my 'Simples Sunday' post again. The challenge this week is a 'One Layer - Anything goes' and I wanted to try something a little different so this is what I came up with. I used the Squares Collection Framelits to make some masks (which I have attempted to show you in the photo bottom right) and used a flower from Petite Petals and a smaller flower from Summer Silhouettes stamped in Elegant Eggplant. The lighter shade was achieved by stamping off first. The sentiment is from Perfectly Penned and I finished the card by adding a tiny Basic Rhinestone to three of the flowers.
This is a fairly simple card but if you want an even simpler one how about this?

Three flowers from Mixed Bunch stamped across the card in Daffodil Delight, a few tiny flowers from Summer Silhouettes stamped in Pumpkin Pie and a sentiment from Four You, again using Pumpkin Pie - job done!!

Have a great rest of the weekend

Margaret x

Thanks for Simples Sunday & Less is More!

I have made two cards today to combine 'Simples Sunday' and Less is More where the challenge is a One Layer Thank You card. Both cards are simple but the one on the right is even more simple than the other!

The first card uses a card blank made with Naturals White cardstock which was masked with a post-it note before stamping the flowers and leaves from Stippled Blossoms in Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ripple and Old Olive. I then drew three lines across where the mask had been with a Raspberry Ripple marker and stamped the sentiment, from Four You, also in Raspberry Ripple. The only thing that makes this card slightly more difficult than the other is because Stippled Blossoms is a two-step stamp set so you need to use a stamp-a-ma-jig to get the positioning right.
The second card is made with three stamps from Oh Hello. The chevron oval was stamped in Wisteria Wonder with the sentiment stamped on top using Elegant Eggplant. I then coloured the flower stamp with Elegant Eggplant and Pear Pizzazz markers before stamping to overlap the chevron oval.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend

Margaret x

Three Challenges in One!

Today's card is one I have made for three challenges in one but, having made it I'm not sure whether it entirely fits the bill for two of them! I used the sketch from CAS - Colours & Sketches challenge site shown left (is there enough stamping?) I am also entering it for LIM - String or Twine (is it CAS enough?) and the SUO Challenge 82 - Harvest Time.
The base card is Crumb Cake, as is the semi-circle which was inked around the edge with Crumb Cake ink. The circle in the centre is Naturals Ivory and both circles were cut with dies from the Circles Collection Framelits. A sentiment from Four You was stamped in Crumb Cake on the central circle before adding the leaves which were cut using the Autumn Accents die and sponged using Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Real Red inks. For the twine I took a piece of Burlap Ribbon and separated some of the threads then tied around the top of the leaves in a knot. To finish the card I added some 'raindrops' to the leaves and circles using Crystal Effects.

Thanks for stopping by

Margaret x

Today's card is another simple one which I made to send to my Grandaughter in Suffolk to wish her luck on her first day at school. She loves pink and, as I'd done all the pale pink sparkly stuff for her birthday the week before, I chose Melon Mambo for this card. The sentiment, from Four You, was stamped onto Whisper White, cut out with one of the Oval Framelits Collection then matted onto a larger Melon Mambo oval. Before fixing to the card blank I glued a little loop of retired Melon Mambo ribbon on one side. The flowers were punched with two of the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack, the leaves from the Bird Builder punch and the tiny flower pearls in the centres are from my non-SU stash.
I'm pleased to say she has settled very well into school and is thoroughly enjoying it! Let's hope it stays that way :0)

Margaret x

Card Swap Bookmark

For August's card swap Jane has set the challenge of making a tag or a bookmark and this is my effort. I posted this early last week so I hope that Aileen has already received it and it's safe for me to show you now :0) I happen to know that Aileen's favourite colour is purple so I chose Elegant Eggplant and Perfect Plum for this magnetic bookmark and card. The flower is from my favourite stamp set of the moment - Flower Shop - and the sentiment is from Four You. The actual bookmark was made with the, now retired, Two Tags die (it's not, and won't be, retired in my house though!) decorated with some random stamping on DSP and flowers punched with the Pansy Punch. The bookmark closes over the page using a couple of small, strong magnets and these were covered with some punched cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by, back soon

Margaret x