Hey there,

I have promised myself to get to bed early tonight! I have been slipping back into the staying up way too late at night, and then getting up at 5:30am just is not enough sleep!

Okay so I have managed to quickly whip up a card for Beate’s Inspiration challenge from last week……just before she loads up the next one tommorrow.

Now the Inpsiration image was quite different!…you will see why……

 So what to do with that one???? I had to think about it for a little while, but ended up coming up with this:

Now since it was a childs room, I thought I would stick with that type of theme. I have started with Soft sky for the base, and cut the cardstock into a 12 cm square card. I layered the top with some watercolour paper to match what I used for the image. And then along the bottom I have used some Pumpkin pie prints DS paper. I have then double paper pierced a border around them all.

I used some Soft sky double stitched ribbon through the centre, and tied off a greeting, which had been punched out with my circle punches and tied up with some twine.

Next I stamped the little teddy bear from the Bundle of Joy stamp set with my Stazon ink pad into watercolour paper. I have watercoloured the image with my aquapainter, and ink pads (caramel, cocoa, and choc chip), and double mounted it onto some Close to cocoa cardstock.

Then last of all I added the 3 antique brass brads mounted above little punched circle of Cocoa cardstock.

I struggled with not adding more onto this card, but the image is fairly blank in places, and thought I probably be best to leave it alone.

Right off to bed, where I really need to be!

Take care!

 Hey there,

I hope your week is going okay so far! Flying by just like the last, and the one before that! It is going to be Christmas before we know it!

Yesterday I has hoped to post these two cards I made over the weekend, however I was very busily cleaning, cleaning, cleaning,……and 6 hours later, I had a clean house, and little energy for anything else. Especially because i was sporting a nasty headache (probably from breathing all the fumes from cleaning products!) and because I hurt my lower back from falling down the stairs (8 of them) whilst carrying a huge box of ’stuff”! I looked like a gymnast gone bad, and well whilst it hurt having one leg bent completely up my back, I am thankful that it wasn’t any worse…….which in that split second as I was falling thought to myself ‘this is going to be ugly!”

Okay so after a good dose of some wonderful tablet, and an early night, i am feeling chipper today

So here are the sketch challenge cards I had fun with over the weekend. First I played with Beate’s Weekend Sketch Challenge. Here is her Sketch:

www.beate.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com

And here is my creation:

Okay so for this card I started with Chocolate chip for the base, which I mounted with some Pretty in pink spotty paper from Stampin’Up’s Spring Fling paper pack. I then paper pierced around the edges and added the Dare to be Fabulous greeting from the Fabulous Flowers stamp set.

I have added the little punched out buttons on the side but using my 3/4″ punch of pumpkin pie, and a 1/4″ punch of chocolate chip cardstock. I added a rhinestone brad in the centres and added a mini glue dot to the tops, topping it off with some pink chunky glitter.

Now for the feature in the centre, I have added a strip of Chocolate chip, and spotty pumpkin pie DS paper to a square of Regal rose cardstock. I have then createda square of whisper white cardstock which I scalloped edge punched at top and bottom edges. I have then made a square of Pretty in pink cardstock, and that spotty paper again.

The stamp in the centre is from Stampin’Up’s One of a kind stamp set which I inked up with my Regal rose, Pumpkin pie, and Chocolate chip markers. I cut it out, and placed a pop up glue dot in the centre, and covered it with the same chunky pink glitter.

The next sketch that I did was from Taylor Vanbruggen of www.tayloredexpressions.com Taylor puts up a cupcake challenge each Friday, and she has great sketches. So when time permits I like to play along…..the aim is to use cupcakes, and usually I do, but I am a little tired of my Big bold birthday stamp set, and so just was dying to still use some of my new goodies!!!!

Here is her sketch:

And here is my creation:

This card is fairly simple realy. I started with Taken with teal for the base, which I have mounted some DS paper from the new Bali breeze paper pack. I then created the little squares with Tempting turquiose, Teal and Old olive cardstock, and squares of the DS paper.

In the centre I have used Certainly celery cardstock which I have paper pierced around the whole outer edge to create a frame, I then added the Whipser white cardstock which I have stamped the blossom stem from the Easter Blooms stamp set (to come) with Celery ink. I have cut out the little blooms from the DS paper and popped them up with cut up dimensionals. Lastly I added some white gel pen to the centre of the blooms, and some celery grosgrain ribbon tied around the middle.

I have to apologize that the photos isn’t the best……grr! Ah well I am still working on my photography skills. For me the problem is lighting and depending on what time of day it is too.

Right better get the kids to swimming lessons on time! Take care! 

 Well you all know how much I LOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEE doing Beate’s weekly inspiration Challenges!!!

I actually missed out on last weeks, just from being busy and not getting the chance to participate, but I didn’t want that to stop me because the image was just so cute, and certainly something different for me.

So here is last weeks image:

Dang that is a bright handbag!!! Whilst it is rather funky, I really don’t know if it is something I would have hanging off my shoulder……probably because it has yellow in it, and you all know my relationship with yellow! LOL!

So using this image as inspiration, I came up with this:

I thought I would make the card sit similar to the bag….with the cut angled down each side. I then stamped the little stamp randomly on the background with Tempting turquiose ink. I then paper pierced a border around the edges.

I added the strip of Black cardstock which I mounted with Olive DS paper  from the Fall flowers paper pack I have created the three layered flowers using the matching cardstock colous….Not quite navy, Tempting tuquiose, Yoyo yellow, Old olive, Basic black, and Whisper white.

I have also used the Eastern blooms stamp set and cut the little flowers out for the centres, adding either a brad, or glitter.

Last of all I added the greeting which is from the So many saying stamp set (hostess) and cut it into the little strips. I have also added 3 black brads at the right hand side of the strip.

Hmm….almost looks like it needs a handle hey!

Right for this weeks Inspiration challenge the inspirations piece was this:

Now Beate says on her blog…..that after she picked this image, she didn’t know what she was thinking…..I had the same thought cross my mind! LOL! But Beate’s own card is amazing!!!! You have to go and check it out for sure!

My little humble attempt at this HARD challenge is this:

Now the only little birdie I had was this one from the Always stamp set! I have used Lovely Lilac cardstock for the base, and added some swirly bits of Almost amethyst, and Lavendar lace cardstock at the top, to emulate the swirls in the picture. Followed by a strip of White taffeta ribbon.

Next I created the circle with my Creative Memories circle cutter, with Elegant eggplant cardstock. I punched out little 1/4′ circles in different colours (to match those in my birdie) and placed them on the underside to ge the multi-coloured scalloped edge.

Now for the bird I scribbled some different colours with my markers alongside each other. Then I have stamped the bird with my Versamark ink pad, and placed it over the colours. I then embossed it with White embossing powder, and cut the little birdie out. I mounted it onto the circle, and paper pierced around the edge of the circle.

The last step I added the greeting, which again is from the So many sayings stamp set (hostess) and cut it out, and finally added two white brads (not SU) to the top right hand corner. Oh and a little paper piercing in the bottom corners…….I can’t seem to make one thing without paper piercing these days!

Hope you liked them, and I will be back with the Challenge winners, and a new one for you

 Hey there,

I am back quickly to show you the card I put togehter for Beate’s Inpsiration challenge this week. You can see check out Beate’s challenges weekly on a Tuesday at www.beate.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com

Here is the Inspiration image to work with:

And this is what I came up with:

Here I started with Kraft cardstock for the base, which I have stamped with the Canvas background stamp with Sahara Sand ink pad. I did this to resemble the wicker look of the bed and floor mat. I have then added a strip if Bayou blue cardstock, that I have also mounted with some Vanilla cardstock, which I stamped the Stem sillhouettes stamp set with Bayou, and Olive ink…..it was nice to dig that out! I so miss that stamp set. I have then roughed up the edges with my distresser.

I then added the large white flower from the Pretties kit. I have coloured the smaller flower with a sponge dauber, and my Bayou stamp pad, lastly adding a large cream pearl in the centre. To finish it off, I have added two photo corner punches of Bayou, and Olive cardstock,  which I have also added 3 antique brass brads brads to each. The greeting is from the Stem Silhouettes stamp set as well, and I have punched it out with the word window punch and mounted it with dimensionals.

Here is a close up:

Thanks Beate for another Inspiration Challenge……I look forward to next weeks!!!