Time Out Challenge 2

Morning all,

Today I'm here with a card that is so very CAS, but took me forever to create!!! I had couple of hours of free time last night once the kids were in bed and my husband was out to begin my card for the new Time Out challenge. I had a possible three ideas of what I wanted to do. I tried all three - and none of them worked. I was so annoyed - It just seems like such a waste of time and above all, resources. I wish I somehow just knew if an idea would work or not before actually trying!! Maybe I will get better at this over time, or perhaps not. I wondered if sketching an idea might be more helpful….but again, I don't think I will really know until I actually try and have the finished piece in front of me.

Anyway…..enough moaning!!! I loved the new inspiration photo from Time Out - so very CAS and I knew straight away that my card just HAD to have loads of white space.

The caption along with it, 'Home Sweet Home' worked perfectly for me, as I was needing to make a New Home card for one of my friends anyway (I love when a challenge matches a card you need to make anyway!!). As I said, I knew I needed white space, there just HAD to be a butterfly and when I thought of the phrase 'Home Sweet Home' I was thinking of the tapestries you get with that same phrase on. I decided to base my card on that. I had the genius idea (maybe not so genius to others!!!!) of getting out the 'X' from one of my alphabet stamp sets and using this to make letters in order that it would look like a tapestry!!

I won't bore you too much with all the mistakes I was making last night - all I'll say is, card too small, ink smudges, embossing powder not sticking…….aaahhhh!! I stopped at 8.30pm after two hours and nothing to show for it!! I could't stop thinking about it last night then I had another genius idea of making the butterfly a substitute for the 'O' in home……

I was so delighted that my toddler was desperate to watch Bob the Builder this morning, which gave me a 30 minute window to get my card completed& photographed….phew, I did it!!!

So, without any more rambling on, here is my 'Home Sweet Home' card….

Now, I do love the concept of this card, but I;m not completely happy with the lettering of the 'sweet home.' This was done using alphabet stamps - one at a time. This is something I definitely need to work on. I'm thinking a stamp-a-majig may be in order as a next purchase.

I do adore this DP from Papermania Capsule collection. I decided to draw a metallic copper fine line around the die cut of the butterfly and some of the butterflies in the photo had a golden edge. I think this adds just a it of interest. I have had to restrain myself from pulling out the pearls to add some embellishments….I think this is a card that has to be left as just plain and simple.

I hope you like this card anyway, and if you have any suggestions on how to improve on using alphabet stampers and also on how to stop so much wastage when planning a card, then do let me know!!

Any comments very much appreciated. 

Laura xx

Resources used

Cardstock - white and nave from Papermill Direct. DP from Papermania Capsule Collections

Ink - Memento Paris Dusk & Summer Sky. Papermania metallic pen

Die - Bright Butterflies by Uniko Studio

Less is More 164 and Dynamic Duos 65

I'm here with another card creation from yesterday - it's not very often that I get the chance to make two cards in one day!!! I guess because my first card was so completely impromptu and so easy too, and made whilst painting with my toddler….

This next card is for the dynamic duos challenge which combines three colours….

and for the Less is more Challenge which funnily enough, also calls for three of something featured on your card. My card features a trio of threes…..three colours, three flowers and three colours of pearls!!

This card was a really simple make, but I hope you still like it.

This card is made using a gorgeous new stamp set from Clearly Besotted called Spring Blooms. I die cut the vase and run it through my big shot machine in a dot embossing folder in order to give depressed dots that I could then add colour to with my spectrum noir markers. This and the tulip heads are popped up on some foam pads to add just a little dimension.

Materials used:

Cardstock - white card from Papermill Direct. turquoise from stash.

Stamps - Spring Blooms (Clearly Bessotted), sentiment from Bright Butterflies (Uniko Studio)

Ink - Hobbycraft jade green, dark purple and fuchsia pink. Spectrum noir markers

Embellishments - pearls (Anita's)

That's all from me today.

Laura xx

Less is more for the Runway Inspired Challenge 56 and Time Out Challenge 1

Hello all,

I am here with a very unexpected card…unexpected in that I did not set out to make a card. I was actually spending time painting with my toddler and he gave me the inspiration for a card using his paint!!!

This has to be the simplest card I have ever made, but I actually find it one of the most effective. The colours directly link to the skirt in the inspiration photo from Runway Inspired Challenge.

I first noticed a yellow butterfly in the skirt and that is my focus of the card, as you will see. Here is the card and I will explain how simple it was.

So, I started off, along with my toddler painting, tapping a paintbrush with various colours of kids poster paint. This created the splatter effect on the card. As it dried, I coloured in with spectrum noir markers my butterfly, created using the gorgeous Visible Image stamp. I then fussy cut this out, bent the wings up and added some pearls down the body. The paint was taking a while to dry so I gave it a quick blast with my heat tool.

Once dried, I added some matching crystals at selected points on the card - this gives a look of coloured rain droplets on the card! I trimmed my card to size, added a simple sentiment, attached to a white backing card with foam pads, added my butterfly and voila…done!!

Since the crystals give the illusion of rain droplets, I think I might even add my card to the Time Out Challenge too as the theme is 'Dancing in the Rain'……I feel like my beautiful butterfly is dancing in the rain - coloured rain!!!

Hope you like my very simple, abstract approach! Any comments always very much appreciated.

Laura xx

Resources:

Cardstock - white card (Papermill Direct)

Paint - Red, Blue, Yellow and Green poster Paint from Early Learning Centre (How funny!!!!)

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Spectrum Noir Markers CT3 & CT4

Embellishments - crystals and pearls (Anita's)

Stamp - Happy Birthday sentiment from Gift for you (Uniko Studio)

Case this Sketch Challenge 69

Hello all,

A busy blogging night for me tonight! Having two young children leaves very little time for crafting, let alone blogging, but I am enjoying some free time now they are in bed!!

Tonight, I have a card to share with you for the Case this Sketch Challenge. My lovely husband surprised me last week with a goodie bag of card making supplies that he had bought for me as a wee treat ;-) This included two packs of patterned papers by Papermania which I just HAD to test out.

One place that I find really inspires me, is the stamping' up catalogue. I love looking through and just seeing the 'layouts' of cards. I guess because I am such a relative newbie in the world of card making, I need all the inspiration I can get!!! Having had another look at the catalogue I feel my card is very much inspired by such 'layouts'…..and I love it actually :-)

Here is the inspiration sketch given by Case this Sketch..

And here is my interpretation…..

Cardstock - White and Navy from Papermill Direct, Capsule Collection Paper (Papermania)

Stamps - Wrinkles (Hobbycraft)

Dies - Xcut square Parenthesis dies

Tools - WRMK Art Deco Cutter

Embellishments - pearls (Anita's), String & Button from stash, Ribbons by Papermania Capsule Collection.

Ink - Memento Paris Dusk 

I hope you like it! Any comments as always very much appreciated :-)

Uniko Studio Guest Design Spot - Challenge 8

This month at Uniko Studio there is another fantastic challenge. This is the second month using the new  format of challenges which proves a stimulus of a photo, colour pallet and a phrase - lots to be inspired by. This month the colour pallet is just so fresh….

I am so excited that I will have a Guest Designer blog post appearing for this, following my win last month. This means I can't show you my card quite yet - you will need to hop on over to Uniko Studio on 4th April, but I will give you just a little sneak preview……

As always, any comments are very much appreciated xx

Double squeal of delight…..

Last month I posted about a card I had created for the Uniko Studio Challenge which left me squealing with delight over how pleased I was with the end result. This card was to be for my very special Mum for forthcoming Mother's Day.

It would appear that I was not the only one pleased with this card….. cause for another squeal of delight, I was chosen as the winner!!!

I was rewarded with a fabulous £10 voucher to spend in Uniko Studio and more importantly, a Guest Designer spot for the next challenge.

I am over the moon. I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone at Uniko Studio :-)

Runway Inspired Challenge 55

Hello all,

A really quick post from me today just to drop in my entry for the Runway Inspired Challenge 55 - Pamela Rolland.

I felt the dress was very Gatsby/Art Deco and I decided to make a card that hopefully reflects this.

I stuck with the black and gold colour theme, using plain black card stock and gold glitter card stock.

I hope you like it…..

Here is the original inspiration photo

Sorry not to be able to chat much about this - I will be adding other posts in the next day or so, so will explain then why I am blogging with only a couple of minutes to spare!!

Any comments always very much appreciated

Laura xx

Dynamic Duo's Number 92

Here with my second post this evening. I adored the butterflies I used in background for my Case the sketch card and I wanted to make this the focus of my card for the dynamic duo's challenge.

I knew I wanted to stamp it in Navy and then use my pink Spectrum Noir Markers to colour it in shades of pink. I am pleased also with how this card turned out.

Stamps - Large Butterfly (Visible Image), Just a Note (Uniko Studio All occasions Sentiments 1)
Ink - Memento Paris Dusk, Spectrum Noir pinks pens no.'s - PL1, BP2, BP6
Cardstock - Papermill Direct white, Navy and pink from stash
Tools - Xcut Circle die
Embellishments - pearls from stash


A short and sweet second post as it's my Birthday and so off to relax and enjoy a lovely meal with my husband. Comments all very much appreciated.

Laura xx

CAS(E) this sketch 66….and a new photographing location!!

Good Evening all,

This is the first of two posts I have to share with you this evening. After the success of receiving and honourable mention for my last CAS(E) this sketch entry - seen here, I was feeling very creatively inspired to get going with the next sketch!!

The sketch was very open ended and so I needed just a little more inspiration which luckily I was able to find from Pinterest….I love just looking through 'everything' and seeing what jumps out at me. For me, it was this….

I had just recently bought some twine for using on my craft projects and I had also received Bright Butterfly dies from Uniko Studio. These combined would be perfect - or so I thought.

I decided to do 3 layers of card which I had preprinted with some fancy script writing and then add a top layer of vellum. When I tried to tie these together as above with my twine, it just didn't work! I decided that my twine was too thick and so changed to just one layer of card, one layer of vellum and glued these together down the centre and added some stick on pearl embellishments. I was much happier with this.

The other main inspiration for my card came from a recent visit to a wedding fair where I was having a good browse at the wedding invitations. The Kraft card is SO big just now and I just had to get in on the action. Unfortunately I did not have any kraft card in my stock and so I made do with bog standard brown parcel paper - I think it does just the job.

I really wanted to add curved corners on the main section of my card which I had to fussy cut as I do not own a round corner chomped…..It is definitely on the wish list however!!

So without any further explanations, here is my card….

I am really pleased with how it all turned out. Comments very much appreciated as always…..Also, what do you think of my new location for taking photos??? I think it works!!!

Stamps: Large Butterfly (Visible Image), Birthday (Uniko Studio All occasions Sentiments 2) Wishes (Uniko Studio Pure Florals: Chrysanthemums)

Dies - Uniko Studio Bright Butterflies

Ink - Memento Desert Sand

Embossing folder - Sizzix more dots

Card - Papermill Direct  - Ivory, Brown parcel paper from stash

Embellishments - Ivory ribbon from stash, sequin from Hobbycraft

Laura xx

Case this sketch 65 Honourable Mention!!!

I am delighted to announce that my Wedding card received and honourable mention from Case this Sketch. This is the very first recognition I have been given for any of my cards and so I actually squealed with delight!!

Here is a reminder of my card which will be working its way in a few months time to one of my bestest of friends…..

Thank you all for the amazing comments you left for this card. I am delighted that you liked it.

Laura xxx