Curing the Monday Blues!

Today I have been curing the Monday Blues with a spot of water colouring. Last week I saw the photo for the latest Fusion Challenge and loved the string of roses. I immediately thought of having another go at painting water colour roses...no stamps just 'real' painting! The challenge this week at Just Us Girls is water colouring, so this fitted in with my thinking. However thinking was as far as I got with this until I saw the photo at the Curing the Monday Blues Challenge-another vase of roses! All these little nudges made my mind up to act and think no more!!

I have made a couple of cards using this technique before but to be honest had forgotten how to do it! So I watched this fabulous video tutorial by Shery and then decided to give it another go. And this is my finished card:

I followed Shery's video except that I used a water colour pencil to add a little more definition to my roses. I fussy cut one out and popped it up on a foam pad for dimension.Naturally I managed to get in some enamel dots! I am quite happy with my card and enjoyed making it. There are no longer Monday Blues!!

I will enter this into:
Fusion-the photo was my inspiration this week
Just Us Girls-water colour technique
Cure the Monday Blues-photo-the roses and colours inspired me

       

Addicted to CAS #36

Second post for today and this time it is for the new challenge at Addicted to CAS. Our host this week is the very talented Michelle who has chosen the following code words for us:

There are so many ways to go with this and our DT have some great examples, you can check them out here. This is what I went with:

The sky is far away, right?? I made this ultra CAS card for a very, very dear blogging friend who just got promoted. I wanted her to remember that she is super talented and really deserved this promotion.

This week we are very lucky to have Anita joining us as our Guest Designer. I have for a long time now been a fan of Anita. I am very luck to have a card she sent me sitting on my mantle piece-a gorgeous CAS card in purple (yes, Anita, I noted you used my fav colour!!)

And for this challenge Stamp Art Design are sponsoring us. Check out their fab store!

Now it id time for you to get inky and join in the fun with us!

Have a great day x

Inkspirational #54

Good Morning All!

The weekend is here and that means it is time for a new challenge at Inkspirational. This week we have the 'Designer's Chioce' and this week the super talented Shauna has chosen the following sketch for us:

This sketch certainly did challenge me and I have used a CAS version of the sketch but I have to say that the centre shape pattern did keep reminding me of a clock. This led me to create this card using Clearly Besotted Stamps

My little alarm clock die is on foam pads for dimension and I couldn't resist adding in a little enamel dot both for fun and I felt I needed one more colour. I do love this and it is so easy to re-create using different colours depending on who it is for.

At Inkspirational this week our Guest Designer is Elaine and she has made a collection of cards to inspire you. They are fabulous-check them out here where you will see all the cards our DT have made this week.

When looking through Clearly Besotted Pinterest board for some ideas of using my 'Time to Celebrate' card I saw this card by Stephanie and realised my card today is very similar. I am not sure if I saw Stephanie's card before but may well have and it sneaked out when making this but I felt she deserved some credit here as my card really does look very similar-so thank you Stephanie x

And don't forget our DT call is still running!!

TIME OUT #3

It is time for our 3rd challenge at TIME OUT. We had so many wonderful entries for our 'Home Sweet Home' challenge last week that it is going to be hard to choose the winners. But if you check back next Thursday we will announce them!

Now we move onto our Theme with an Optional twist Challenge and this week we have this for you:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 

with the optional twist of a Masculine Birthday.

That means you can make any kind of Birthday card you want or you can twist along with us and make a Masculine card. If you do twist then you will be in for the chance of winning a £15 gift voucher from Uniko Studios. This winner will be randomly selected.We have more prizes from Uniko Studios-check the stamp set and dies at the end of my post!

I decided to go with the twist and make this card for my husband's Birthday next week.

I have used the 'explosion' stamp set from Uniko Studio who we are very lucky to have sponsoring us this week. I made the background by repeatedly stamping the explosion stamp and then heat embossing it with clear powder.

This week we are very happy that Beverley is joining us as our Guest Designer. Beverley won our very first challenge and she has made a fabulous card for us. Check it out here where you will also see all the cards from our wonderful Design Team.

And back to the prizes!!

If you are the overall winner you will have the chance to join us as Guest Designer for our next challenge and you will also win these from Uniko Studios

       

Tempted??? You have until Wed 23rd 5pm GMT to take TIME OUT and join in the inky fun!

Addicted to Stamps and More #90

Its time for our photo challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More. And we have this very seasonal photo for you:

I decided not to go down the Easter card route but to focus on these bright colours and patterns. CAS(E) this Sketch provided the inspiration for my lay out. I really wanted to use my 'explosion' stamp from Uniko Studios for this sketch but it took me ages to hunt through my stamps to find other stamps that I thought would compliment it. The ones I have used are actually from vintage Christmas Ornament stamps!

I heat embossed the sentiment from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps. I think this makes for a fun card that would be good for a geeky friend or, come to think of it....my geeky husband!

This week we are lucky to have the very talented Bonnie joining us as our Guest Designer and A Random Fan as our sponsor-check out their fab store here.

Our DT have some super inspiration for you and you can find this on our blog here. Take a look, be inspired and then get stamping!

Here is the sketch that inspired this challenge that I am entering my card into:

STAMPlorations Sketch #9

Happy Monday to all,

It is time for our new sketch at STAMPlorations. Here is our sketch this week

I have gone for Spring colours here and a combo of white on a cream base card. I love this combo but haven't used it for ages. I started with the idea of making a shaker card but it turned into being a window card with no shaking going on! But I liked the crisp look of it and the touch of twine was used to pick up the colour of the enamel dot. The stamp set I used is Patchwork Frenzy-graphic squares

This week we have Kathy joining us our Guest Designer and her card is amazing. Check it out here where you will see all the cards our DT have made to inspire you.

PRIZE

The sketch challenges are sponsored by our sister shop, All About Scrapping. The winner gets to pick 3 DIGITAL products from the shop -- any combination of printable sheets, Photoshop templates, and digital paper packs. The winner will also be invited as a Guest Designer in next month's sketch challenge.

*****

I hope you have a fun day and get inky and join us!

STAMPlorations April Challenge

It is time for our monthly challenge at STAMPlorations and this month we want to see you use stamps and a technique:

There are lots of cool techniques out there that you could choose. I thought of a few when preparing for this challenge. However when I think of what makes me really happy when making cards, it has to be good old plain stamping. Give me some good stamps and some ink and I am happy! I was inspired by the photo challenge at Fusion-the brickwork, text collage stamping on the dress stand and the pop of colour the scarf brings to the photo,(see fusion photo below) inspired this:

I have used the mini mixed media STAMPloration stamp set to create my background and just popped some bright coloured enamel dots for contrast-just like the scarf in the fusion photo but perhaps my dots are more of a contrast, but I actually love this colour against the grungy background.

The winner of our STAMPlorations challenge can choose 2 clear stamp sets from the Vignette, Patchwork Frenzy and Subway Art sets-visit the shop here to have a browse. Plus if you enter all three challenges this month there is an extra special prize that you could win-visit our main challenge blog here for details and to see all fab inspiration from our teams. We are joined by the very creative Sian this month as our GDT.

Have fun choosing a technique this month and I am looking forward to visiting your blogs.

I will also enter this into the Birthday Challenges at Seize the Birthday and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

Here is the inspiration for my card from Fusion