Slumber

Yet another of the 2nd birthday cards this time featuring "slumber" from the greeting farm, these stamps are fab and I wish there were more in the range, fingers crossed there are soon.

I went with a different hair combo for me, I like the kind of golden blond look and think I might use it again.

Ingredients
Image: "slumber" The Greeting Farm
Paper: "fairytale dreams" Nit wit
Card: "cotton candy" and "grapesicle" both MFT
Dies: blueprints 3, 12, and 14
Sentiment: "sweet little sentiments" Clearly besotted

Copics:
Skin - E11. 00, 000, R20
Hair - Y21, YR21, 23, E35, 34
Dress - RV10, 11, 13, 14
Flowers - RV13, 14, 17

Shoot for the Stars

I made this card to wish my neighbour good luck at University. I wanted her to know I was thinking of her and that I I know she will do very well and enjoy it immensely.

I was looking for something inspiring and this set was on my desk, ok confession time it had fallen out of the MFT box and I had forgotten to put it back lol, the quote seemed perfect and I thought a galaxy background would work perfectly. The distress inks blend so beautifully on the watercolour card, much better than standard card. I was going to try the water droplet technique but went with the sprays instead, they give the paper a lovely shimmer.

It looks much darker on the screen than it does in real life.

Ingredients
Sentiment: "count the stars" MFT
Embossing powder: Ranger silver fine detail
Stars: "Sketchy stars" Papertrey Ink
Card: Snippet folder and Tim Holtz watercolour
Sequins: "charcoal" and "clear" pretty pink posh
Distress inks: "seedless preserves", "chipped sapphire" and "black soot"
Sprays: "amethyst" and "white" both Heidi Swapp

Who let the beer out

This card might look kind of familiar and you would be right as I made a few like it earlier this year.

I've used my trusty plaid builder from mft again, this makes this background so much fun and so quick to make, I watched the papertrey plaid builder video recently and it operates completely differently to the mft one so I think I might need that too, obsessed me, no never lol. This time though I started with a coloured card base and stamped the designs in both directions and I like the result.
The diagonal was cut after I had stamped the entire panel so there is enough left to make another card. I wasn't going to stamp the bottom grey piece but it looked too plain so I added a simple grid pattern.

Ingredients
Image: craft beer from paper trey ink, stamped in "potters clay" memento dew drop
Sentiment: craft beer from papertrey ink
Card: grout Gray and steel grey both mft
Inks: grout Gray, steel grey both mft and enchanted evening from Papertrey ink
Dies: blueprints 15 and basic stitched borders both MFT
Backgrounds: plaid builder and grid both mft
Dots: white - recollections from Michaels, grey - Teresa collins and blue - Denim from Papermania

New Job James

Its been a while since I've created a new job card, in fact I don't think I've used this image in about three years for guy cards though its still one of my favourites. I had a bit of a virus when I made this card and so its fairly clean and simple design but I still think thats best for guy cards.

At the MFT retreat in May, Barbara showed us a technique using the harlequin stencil and Ive recreated it here, you simple use the stencil as normal in one colour then once you have finished you place the stencil back over your project just this time the holes are in-between the ones from last time and fill in again. it sounds more complicated than it is and Barbara has a video showing it which will probably make more sense.

Ingredients
Image: "work James" digistamp boutique
Paper: harlequin stencil from mft and "summer sky" memento ink and "steel blue" ink from mft on a "smoky slate" card base
Card: "basic grey" Stampin up
Dies: zig zag square and square stax from mft and xxl stitched square crealies
Brad: Eyelet Outlet

Copics
Skin - E000, 00, 11
Hair - C7, 5, 3
Suit - N7, 5, 4
Shirt - B21. 23
Tie - N2, 1, B23
Case - E77, 74
Ground  - W3, 1

Butterfly Shaker

This card is an amalgamation of lots of different cards and techniques I've recently seen around blog land. I didn't get inspired by any one card but by several. I received the butterfly solid dies from mft as part of the retreat goodies and I had no idea what to do with them, then I suddenly thought try a shaker card. I wanted the background to be different shades of distress ink and I wish I'd used watercolour card stock but this is just regular card.

After I recreated the background I spritzed it with water and I liked the droplet pattern, I waited until it dried then cut the butterfly out so I have a spare butterfly to use on another project. No this is where things kind of went a bit haywire, I put my card stock down on my bench whilst I cut the foam with the butterfly die and didn't realise I laid my piece on top of a wet baby wipe. This wicked away the colour from one of the edges and it looked ruined and ready for the bin when I spotted Michelle was using a baby wipe with a stencil as a background so I grabbed a stencil large enough to cover the wicked area and gave it a try, it didn't work like Michelle's but it definitely covered up my error.

After that major disaster I decided to keep the rest of the card simple and just added a sentiment, some sequins and called it done.

Ingredeints
Inks: Cracked Pistachio, Peacock feathers and salty ocean
Sentiment: "think big favourites 12" Papertrey Ink
Dies: Blueprints 15 and flutter of butterflies solid both MFT
Stencil: "diamond circles" Simon says stamp
Sequins: Stash

Make a Wish - Makey Bakey Mice

I am slowly working my way through my older unused stamps. It is a slow, slow process though and I really didn't realise how many I hadn't even inked. I would put myself on a shopping ban but I always spend more then lol.

Ingredients
Image: "Make a Wish" Makey Bakey Mice from Crafters Companion
Paper: "Market" MME
Card: "melon berry" papertrey Ink
Dies: Blueprints 3, 13 and 2, Square and zig zag square staxs
Other : Imagine crafts Pico Embellisher in Shimmer

Copics
Mice - E30, 31, 33, 34, 35, R11, 00
Ground - E43, 42, 41, 40
Sky - BG000, 0000 and blender
Icing - R22, 21, 20, 12, 11
Cake - E29, 25, 23
Cake Case - BG13, 11, 10, R22, 20
Cherry - R39, 37

Balloon Shaker

Sometimes you have an idea and it works perfectly other times it just doesn't, well this is one of those doesn't work ones but as I'd used gorgeous sequins on it I thought I should finish it and make it into a card. 

Yes your eyes aren't deceiving you the sentiment is wonky lol but only a little bit, its nowhere near as noticeable in real life. Im not sure where I got the sentiment from, I'm sure as soon as this is published I will remember.

Ingredients
Card:Michaels 110lb White
Dies: Blueprints 13 and balloon stax both MFT
Paper:
Sequins: doodlebug selection pack
Stamps: Balloon strings from "best Birthday" from Clearly Besotted

Inlaid Diecutting

I recently joined two friends for a crafty evening and I was surprised that they expected me to not only make something but finish it and bring the card the following week lol. I had loads of fun with this Memory box poppy die and I decided to push myself a bit and do some inlaid die cutting. The whole image was cut in white card stock then cut again with a circle die. I then coloured with pro markers the poppies and the background with "tumbled glass" distress ink. Sticking it back together was more challenging then I thought but I was pleased with the finished result.

Now the challenge of making it into a card in less than a week, eek, challenge indeed. I was stumped for a few days then I saw this card on Barbara's blog and inspiration struck.

I used some translucent embossing paste on a small white panel with the circle Stampin Up mask. For the grey panel I used the stripe stamping up mask and my mini blending tool and matching ink.

I decided it looked like a thinking of you card so I found the perfect sentiment and the card was done. Now I need to see what we are going to make next, of course by the time you see this post I might have made several things lol.

Ingredients
Image: "poppy die" Memory Box
Card: White 110lb from Michaels and "steel grey" from MFT
Dies: Spellbinders circle, MFT circle stax and Pierced flagstax
Sentiment: "sweet little sentiments" Clearly Besotted
Ink: "tumbled glass" distress ink, versa mark and "steel grey" from MFT
Stencils: "circle and stripe" stampin up

Wine Diva

I think these Ai images are too funny but you have to be mindful of the audience, the images kind of remind me of members of my family but I think they would be mortified if they realised this lol so I try to send them to people with a sense of humour about themselves. My cousin always sends me a funny card and I thought this year I would return the favour.

I paper pieced the chair and I'm so pleased I did as it ties in nicely with the background papers. This card didn't turn out as I envisaged but sometimes things just evolve.

I'm a big fan of the MFT staxs and blueprints but they are a little small for a 135mm card base so I was tickled pink when I saw that "crealies" are making XXL dies with or without stitching in larger sizes, I bought the square and the circle ones and I'm looking at the ovals as well.

Ingredients
Image: "wine diva" Art Impressions for Michaels clear stamp
Paper: "Beautiful Moments" Carta Bella
Card: "Smokey shadow" Papertrey Ink
Dies: Basic border edges, square stax and zig zag stitched squares all MFT and Stitched Square no 22 by Crealies

Copics
Skin - E000, 00, 11,
Hair - E30, 31, 34
Headband and earrings - W9, 7, 5
Dress - R85, RV34, R83, 81
Ground - W3, 1
Wine - R89, 39, 37

Love your Selfie

My good friend Kay persuaded me to buy this set and I'm so glad I did as it was such a fab image to colour, it also let me practices other skin combos as if I'd used my normal ones only it would have looked really bland.

I coloured the image ages ago and I wish I had written down the colours as I was going cos I have no idea what I used, oh well never mind you live and learn, and of course it gives me an excuse to colour it again.

I used an idea by Nicole Magouirk, she likes to attach the polaroids using wash tape and I thought I could make it look like a pin board by using cork paper. The paper was in my snippet folder so Im entering the snippet playground.

Ingredients
Image: "photobomb" Mama Elephant
Dies: Blueprints 2 and Polaroid both MFT
Paper: "note to self" Echo Park for Jessica Sprague
Card: Michaels 110lb white
Washi Tape - Dollar Tree

Challenges - Snippet Playground