Paper Hugs

The card today is for OLW - their theme is Life's a Beach. For the background square, I used a woodgrain stamp by Paper Smooches, masked off, and the little boat is from a Gina K stamp set, By the Sea.  The sentiment is another Gina K stamp, from the set Life's a Beach!

Here is this week's sketch at the Sweet Stop : I have chosen to flip the sketch, and to alter the small shapes into banners.  This way I could carry on the theme of a birthday party bash, and also match my background paper.  Sweet 'n Sassy sets used:  Birthday Bash stamp and dies, and Pennant Party dies plus the sentiment.  Designer paper was Basic Grey:  Shine On.  After stamping the frosting in Memento Rich Cocoa, I added colour with Copics and shined up the sprinkles with a gelly roll pen. Now take a look at what the other designers have come up with for this challenge and let us see your own creations.   Cathy McCauley ,  Korin Sutherland ,  Ceal Pritchett ,  Marlena Peduzzi ,  Melissa Shultz ,  Robin Parker ,  Stephanie Serrano ,  Ann Tuck ,   Cynthia Olheiser , Debbie Owens , and  Jamie Moore .      

This week's challenge at LIM  is to include a handmade flower in your project.  For those who have visited my blog recently, you may remember that I have been making crochet flowers to incorporate in my cards, and I have shown them in my recent post  here .  However, the rules of the competition do not allow projects already posted, so I have made a very different card for this challenge.  Just some punched flowers this time, but it has turned out to be a cheerful card, so I'm happy with it.  I just wish I had not been in such a hurry to post my crochet flowers!  The small vases came from an Annabelle Stamp set called Flowers for You, and the little flower stem is also by Annabelle Stamps, and is Floral Stems.  The bee is from a small set by Avocado Arts.

Here is this week's sketch at the Sweet Stop :  and the spin is doilies! Sweet 'n Sassy have a new release of stamps and dies for July, including a beautiful stamp set of doilies, plus a die set of two borders in doily style.  Unfortunately, I do not own this set yet, so had to look around in my supplies to see what I could use for this challenge.  I found a very old stamp set by Grant, of several medallions with interchangeable centres, which I thought looked like doilies - a bit!  I cut out my circles from metallic cream card stock, using Spellbinders tear-drop circles nesties, and from white metallic card using Quickutz Doily circles nesties.  I then stamped the medallions onto the circles, heat embossed them and then sponged over with Brushed corduroy Distress Ink.  My background is the same cream metallic card, embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, Dots and Circles.  A SnS large scallop border cut from Kraft, some real lace and a small tag from the Mini tag set, completes

My second post today is to show some cards I have made using a very popular die by Memory Box, called Prim Poppies.  It is a wonderful die, as it seems to be so versatile.  Here are a few of the ways I have found to use it, but I intend to make many more.  The final two cards use the elephant stamp by Woodware - my favourite stamp (at the moment, anyway) - I love how the cards work out when I use this stamp.  It really suits a large square card, but I thought I'd try a regular A2 for the pink one, to see how it went, however, my favourite is still the square card!  It is such fun to paper piece the elephant - they always look different.

It's hard to believe, but it's true - early next week it will be our 47th Wedding Anniversary!  And if you count the few years before that, when we were 'going together', it has been over a 50-year partnership!  This weekend we will be celebrating in the city for a couple of days - enjoying the sights, a movie, some good food, and just absorbing the vibe of our favourite city - Melbourne.  I'm thinking we should plan something special for our 50th - perhaps our family can come together for that occasion?  Hopefully, that can happen - we'll put our thinking caps on in the meantime.  But for now, we are feeling very blessed to be able to share this milestone together this weekend, and will probably reminisce over those many years, and all the wonderful memories we have of our time together, our precious family and the joy we have known.  I do have a card to share of course lol! - this is for both of us.  My DH has written the same words to me each and every year,

Another even quicker post for today - hopefully, I have the criteria correct this time!  I am entering this card into LIM challeng e #128.  With a flurry of activity on the web, to find another shape, and a scramble through my stamps to find something I could use for the hexagon shape that I found, a craft space in a complete mess, and inks everywhere - you know how it can be in no time at all, don't you?  Here is the card I made for this one layer, any shape other than a square or rectangle: da da!  What I did enjoy about this process was 'kissing' the inks - so that a mottled effect of honey and a richer yellow was achieved.  The sentiment is from Inspired by Stamping, the bee from Lawn Fawn and the hexagon pattern from Mama Elephant, Modern borders.

A quick post to enter this week's challenge at Less is More , where the challenge is a card shape other than a square or rectangle.  My largest die shape is a circle, so that's what I went with.  I'm using a stamp set from 'Inspired by Stamping' Fancy Labels 2, with matching framelits die, plus the sentiment from their set called Trendy Circle Sentiments - I can see me using these sets time and again.  The little butterfly is by Memory Box - Isabella.  I just love the fresh blue colour of the ink I used on this card; it is  a Ranger Adirondack, and the colour is Stonewashed.  Oh, and the little chevron text in the background is from a set by Lilybee design, called Buttercup - another current favourite stamp set.  Now I have just read the challenge again, and find it is a one layer card, so my card would not be allowed!  Oh dear, I was in such a rush!  I'm going to see if I can recreate it with one layer - I may be back!!

Time for another sketch challenge at the  Sweet Stop Sketches . Another great sketch to work with, and for this week, I have chosen to use the beautiful  Landscape Silhouettes   clear stamp set.  This project was quite a challenge for me, because I wanted to use sponging on the focal background, and that doesn't always work out for me!  Korin has given a fabulous tutorial on this technique on the Splitcoast Stampers website here, so do check it out to see how an expert handles it!  That was not the only challenge for me, though, as a silhouette stamp needs special inking, especially over sponging, so I had to purchase a permanent ink, such as Versafine Onyx Black.  Even so, I could have inked it better!  I added the seagulls from a set by Gina K, called By the Sea.  My vibrant background papers came from Basic Grey: Shine On, and the horizontal strips from my stash.  Embellishments include a punched anchor, and a sailor's knot tied with twine. Now to check out what t

This week's challenge at Less is More is entitled Shades of Grey!  Now does that sound familiar?  Well, it's not what you're thinking - lol! - the challenge is to use various shades of the colour grey.  Not my favourite colour, I must admit.  I did try it out with a graphic style which was a disaster, finally deciding to make a sympathy card.  I felt the sombre colour grey would be more suited to that kind of card, so here is my creation. I used one of my first stamp purchases - a set by Gina K called 'Whimsical Spring' which contains the leaf spray in both a silhouette and a lined stamp - perfect for two-step stamping!  I added the die cut birds (Memory Box die) and mounted the white panel onto some spotted grey designer paper from my stash.

Today I am adding some more of my CAS thank you cards - I really like making them, as they (mostly) involve my making something first, be it a crochet flower or a rolled rose, so although they are very CAS they also include a little bit of me in them.

Here is this week's sketch at the Sweet Stop - a great square card shape: For my sample, I made my square 5.5" and chose to use the Sweet 'n Sassy stamp set called Vintage Postcard .  I had found some airmail dsp in my stash, so thought I'd try for a collage type look, sponging the card stock with some distress inks, using the notebook edge die by MFT, and some images from the Vintage Postcard set.  I also grabbed a couple of images from the SnS set Across the Miles , for the compass and arrows embellishments.  Instead of the tag, I used some washi tape on the outer square background, as it seemed to fit there better. Here is what I created - I hope you find some inspiration in it: Now check out what the other DT members have in store for you and don't forget to load up your own creations to the link on the blog site. Cathy McCauley ,  Korin Sutherland ,  Ceal Pritchett ,  Faye-Wynn Jones ,  Marlena Peduzzi ,  Melissa Shultz , Robin Parker ,  Steph

For the card I have made today, I am using my new stamp set, by lilybeedesign, called Buttercup, which includes a couple of background blocks.  I have seen these small pattern squares elsewhere (eg Clearly Besotted, UK), but this is the first time I have been able to use them.  In addition to these extra elements to use, I have also been trying to master the crochet flower.  Thank goodness for YouTube tutorials, and the patient crafters who share their knowledge.  I looked at several videos, including ones by ginacrafter, crochet geek and iknitwithcatfur (she doesn't), and taking advice from all of them, I have managed to complete quite a few.  They are really quick to make, and although I'm no expert, I think they make a nice embellishment for a card.  So simple, but effective - I like it. The last card has been made by my grandson, Alex - it is a Thank you card for the teacher at his school who has been coordinating the students involved in this year