Bicycle & Blooms

Haven't had very much time to craft lately, but finally had a few moments to colour this great image from Sherri Baldy.

 I'm entering this into the following challenge(s):

Scrapbook Stamp Society - Challenge #50: Anything Goes
Simon Say Stamp Wednesday - Make Your Own Background

I started by embossing a couple of pieces of cardstock with a couple old embossing folders I have from years ago (I always try and use my old and almost forgotten supplies whenever I can, so they get some love!) I rubbed over the raised embossing with distress inks to create my backing paper.

I'm trying to perfect my colouring so wanted to use an image with lots of folds in the material, her little tutu and ribbons are perfect for this.

I love images with glasses because I can use my glossy accents to make them look realistic. I love how it's so easy to add another texture to a flat card.

I kept the embellishing simple, with some handmade paper flowers and a few stamped and die cut flowers and finally, of course, some of my beloved sequins.

Supplies used:

Image: My besties from Sherri Baldy

Colouring the image: Spectrum noir pens
Cardstock - 'Stampers Select White' from Papertrey Ink and powder blue from stash.

Paper flowers - from iamroses.com

Ink - 'Victorian Velvet' and 'Antique Linen' Tim Holtz DI

Dies: 'Blueprints 13' from MFT

Ribbon: Baby pink 10mm grosgrain from stash.

Finishing touches - Sequins, 'coral pink' flatback pearls, wink of stella brush pen (clear), glossy accents.

Tools - Printer (for image and sentiment), Embossing folders, Tonic paper trimmer, scissors, foam pads, wet glue, Big Shot die cutting machine, mini blending tools, Scotch ATG.

Thank you so much for visiting here, please leave a comment - they make me smile! :)

Katy xx

Stitched Snowflakes

My pre-ordered lawn fawn stitched snowflake dies arrived in the post this afternoon! After doing a happy dance, I just had to make something with them!

I used this sketch from retro sketches as my inspiration.

I ended up making a cute little card (it started out much bigger but i had to cut it down due to an ink spillage!) by layering strips of green paper from just one sheet of 6x6 from the 'Color Wash' paper pad from Pink Paislee. I made some of the strips patterned using stamps and masking off individual strips. By that time, it was a bit too green so I opted to layer over some crisp white pennant shapes and stamped a greeting onto one of them.

 I popped three snowflakes onto foam pads before dotting some sequins and rhinestones around. Adding wink of stella in clear to the snowflakes makes them really sparkle and shimmer and offsets them from the plain white pennant shapes. You'll notice from the photo above that I also made a matching envelope which I stencilled to match the card.

Supplies used:

Patterned Paper - 'Color Wash' pad from Pink Paislee
Cardstock - 'Stampers Select White' from Papertrey Ink

Sentiment Stamp - 'Fillable Frames #9' from Papertrey Ink

Pattern Stamps - 'More Washi Patterns' from MFT

Star Stencil - 'Stars & Dots' from Simon Says Stamp

Snowflakes dies - 'Stitched Snowflakes' from Lawn Fawn

Ink - 'Bundled Sage' Tim Holtz DI, 'Spring Moss', 'Ripe Avocado' from Papertrey Ink

Finishing touches - Sequins, rhinestones, wink of stella brush pen (clear)

Tools - Tonic paper trimmer, scissors, foam pads, wet glue, Big Shot die cutting machine, mini blending tool, fiskars stamp press, post-it tape, Scotch ATG.

Thank you so much if you stopped by, please leave me a comment so I know you've been,

Katy xx

Being Bold

I'm really excited to share this card today, I had so much fun with the colour palette!

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

 BOLDLY go into STAMPtember at the Simon Says Stamps Monday challenge blog

 'Anything Goes' at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge blog

Challenge #49 'Anything Goes' at the Scrapbook Stamp Society challenge blog

Inspired by the challenge to be BOLD over at Simon Says Stamp, I decided to make a  statement with my use of colour. For a double whammy, I was also brave enough to do something I had never done before and that was to colour the lady's hair in an unnatural colour - hot pink!

 I started by decorating all my layering pieces and die cut shapes using brightly coloured distress inks, stencils and stamps, then coloured my image to match using co-ordinating alcohol markers. Image is: 'Fancy' by Saturated Canary.

 I added the white dots in her hair afterwards with a gel pen as it's hard to leave the tiny areas white when using alcohol markers. I finished by adding wink of stella to the dress and hair ribbon and glossy accents to her eyes.

 So there it is, my bold, bright card for today.

Supplies used:

Spectrum noir pens, Signo white gel pen,  MFT 'blueprints 13', 'bride & groom', 'circle stax set 1' and 'circle stax set 2' dies, Papertrey 'sweet life' and MFT 'more washi patterns' and 'always & forever' stamps, Simon Says Stamp 'large morrocan' and Tim Holtz 'woodgrain' stencils, Distress ink pads; mustard seed, mowed lawn, peacock feathers, picked raspberry and black soot, black cardstock and white cardstock from Papertrey and sequins from Doodlebug.

If you popped over today, please leave a comment, I love to hear your thoughts!

Katy xx

You Are So Amazing

I decided to make a card with the left over pieces from the card I made in my last blog post to enter this week's MFT Card Sketch and seeing as the pieces were from the last card the colours were the same so I could enter this into the MFT color palette challenge

aswell. I'm also entering it into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge too as you are allowed to enter upto five projects for that challenge, this will be my third.

I paired the above colour combo and this sketch...

...and this is the result...

I stamped some of the sentiment onto the largest arrow die cut and cut around the 'Amazing' stamped word by hand to leave a white border.

  I used stars and arrow shapes to embellish, and also some of the same sequins and jute string from the last post. This time, instead of using puffy paint to embellish the stars, i glazed a few of them with glossy accents.

Supplies used:
 Cardstock - orange zest, simply chartreuse, enchanted evening and stamper's select white all from Papertrey, Kraft from stash.
Patterned Paper - Pink Paislee 'Solstice' pad
Chevron Stencil - MFT 'On the diagonal'

Ink pads - Orange zest, enchanted evening and classic kraft all from Papertrey
Stamps - MFT 'Simply fabulous saying'
Dies - MFT - 'Blueprints 13'
Sequins - Doodlebug
Jute String - Tim Holtz
Glossy accents.

Thank you for visiting today, please leave me a comment so I know you've been!

Katy xx

I Think You're Awesome

Today I made a card to enter this month's MFT color palette challenge
I'm entering it into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge too.

I have to admit, if it weren't for this challenge I would never have thought to use these colours together on a card, in fact I don't like them together, they seem to clash and jar eachother but I just love challenges that are truly challenging! It was so good to get out of my comfort zone and really use all my creativity to make it work. And I ended up with a card I was really pleased with!

I don't have any MFT cardstock or inks so I substituted for Papertrey supplies and created some tone on tone stamped die cuts.

Although I'd decided I wanted to keep this as more of a masculine card, I wanted to add a little something to finish it off, so opted to embellish with matte sequins and puffy paint on a few of the orange stars and of course I had to include some of my favourite kraft coloured jute string!

Supplies used:
 Cardstock - orange zest, simply chartreuse, enchanted evening and stamper's select white all from Papertrey, Kraft from stash.
Patterned Paper - Pink Paislee 'Solstice' pad
Chevron Stencil - MFT 'On the diagonal'
Stamps - MFT 'Simply fabulous saying' and 'More washi patterns'
Dies - MFT - 'Blueprints 13'
Sequins - Doodlebug
Jute String - Tim Holtz
3D paint - Scribbles 'Shiny bright orange'

Thanks so much for stopping by today, please leave a comment so I know you've visited!

Katy xx

Winter Wishes

Here is my first Christmas card of the year.

I'm entering this into two challenges;
 Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes (with the option to use Memory Box Supplies)
I used a stencil from Memory Box to make the patterned background paper using distress inks.
Winter Wonderland Challenge - Anything Goes for Xmas

I decorated the inside of the card with the left over pieces and some matching embellishments.

Supplies used:

Tonic Paper trimmer, image from Saturated Canary, glossy accents (used as a strong adhesive and to glaze the eyes on my main image), foam squares, music patterned cardstock from Hunkydory, sequins, distress inks and mini blending tools, spectrum noir pens, paper flowers, Tim Holtz jute string, organza ribbon, wink of stella clear brush pen, signo white gel pen, sentiment stamps, kraft cardstock and tag die from PTI, MFT circle dies, memory box 'heartwood' stencil, snowflake dies and white cardstock from Simon Says Stamp.

Please remember to leave me a comment so I know you have popped by!

Katy xx

Welcome, and a couple of challenges!

This is my first blog post, so a very warm welcome to you if you are reading this!

I've been crafting since I can remember, and lately I've got back into cardmaking.

Here's a card I made using a Sherri Baldy digistamp image, which I coloured with spectrum noir pens and added some embellishments to.

I'm entering this into the challenge here which is to use a Sherri Baldy image and your favourite colour combination and to the challenge here which is 'anything goes and the option of vintage'. My favourite colour combo at the moment (I change my mind on a weekly basis!) has to be pink and green, I'm especially loving coral pink tones at the moment as they seem to be everywhere you look. I've added some vintage details using jute string and a doily and inked around the edges of everything to make it look distressed.

 I decorated the inside of the card as I had some pieces left over and I think it just finishes it off nicely and makes the card look more professional.

Supplies used:

Tonic Paper trimmer, glossy accents (used as a strong adhesive), foam squares, paper doily, sequins, distress inks and mini blending tool, sprectrum noir pens, paper flowers and leaves, Tim Holtz jute string, organza ribbon, wink of stella clear brush pen, sentiment stamps from PTI (I cut mine up so I could layer the words on top of each other), MFT dies, patterned papers from Prima, pink cardstock from PTI and white cardstock from Simon Says Stamp.

Thanks so much if you read my first blog post! Please do leave a comment so I know you have popped by!

Katy xx