ATC Challenge 9 - Owls

This week over at ATC Challenges the theme is Anything Goes with the option of using Owls.  There is a prize of a cute flower stamp for one lucky winner.  I have several Owl stamps, so how could I resist.

I started with an Owl stamp that came free ages ago with Craft Stamper.  After stamping it onto green card I came up with the idea of paper piecing it - fiddly but lots of fun.  I added a bit of Sakura Stardust pen to make it sparkle.  All the papers I have used are from Papermania Secret Garden pad (there was some with owls on but I seem to have used them all up!).  I added the sentiment (from my fav. Hero Arts Anytime Messages), a bit more sparkle and a swirly clip.  Go check out the other ATCs my teamies have made and, of course, we'd love to see yours.

Climb every mountain

I decided to make my newphew a birthday card using the Darkroom Door stamp set Wilderness Vol. 1.  It's got this great quote from The Sound of Music.  I stamped the main image in Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip onto Kraft cardstock.  The sentiment was stamped using the same ink but I added the row of trees stamped in SU Cake Crumb.  I also stamped the trees onto the card blank to make a background.  The main image is matted and layered onto 2 different brown cardstocks, with the top edge torn.  I just matted the sentiment onto the darker cardstock and ran a strip of the lighter brown through my Cuttlebug using the Forest Branch folder, adding a bit of ribbon.  I have a small confession - that little canoist is not actually a canoist, but a bit of fibre that got stuck to my stamp, lol.

Little bird, I have heard . . .

I decided to  make a parchment card for a friend's birthday, and as she is a keen birdwatcher, this one ws an obvious choice.  The pattern is from an old Parchment Craft magazine (September 2009) and by Mary G Kerr.  I started with the outer layer.  In the original pattern, this was done on blue fantasy parchment but as I didn't have any I used some printed vellum I got ages ago (sorry no make on it).  I traced the flower pattern with gold pen and gently embossed it, but I'm not sure how effective that was as the patterned vellum hides the embossing.  The inner layer was made by placing my parchment over an outline of a Blue Tit and then using my Derwent Studio Pencils to draw/colour it.  I also drew the branch and part of the buds with pencil but traced the flowers and white part of the buds with white pen before embossing them. Finally I added some dorsing on the back of the parchment behind the bird.  I really like putting drawing birds on parchment but have only got patterns for Blue Tits and Robins.  Must search out some more.

Little Red Bird

I've been having a play lately with my Stampin' Up stamps.  Oh how I love them! LOL.  For this card I got out the lovely Four Frames and stamped up the dotty one in SU Early Expresso.  Then I added the little bird from SU Silhouette Sentiments in SU Rose Red.  My backing card is stamped with one of the flowers from the Silhouette Sentiments set in SU Cake Crumb and then I embossed the top half of the card with the D'vine Swirls folder from Cuttlebug.  The border was punched with a Martha Stewart punch (Scallop Dot) and I added a ribbon and buttons to finish off.

I'm on a Roll!!

Had a lovely busy few days making cards, so this is my 3rd post today.  I've got a few other cards that I've made but they can wait for another day.

I'm really enjoying getting back into Parchment after my enforced break (a bout of carple tunnel which, thankfully, has disappeared).  I took my time over this as it was a pattern I had tried before and messed up.  I'm afraid I don't know who's pattern it is as it was given to me at a parchment lesson I went to ages ago and has no details on it.  I traced the pattern with a white pencil, then added colour to the reverse using Whispers Pens.  Then I added a little bit of embossing to the bamboo and leaves, and lots of gridwork to the rest.  I backed the parchment with some sparkly brown card, popped it onto a card blank and added the lovely sentiment from Stampscapes. 

Inspired by Inky Fingers

I have a friend who really comes up with some brilliant ideas and I'm afraid I've actually gone and stolen one (tee hee!).  Her blog is called Inky Fingers.  We had to make cards for a challenge ages ago using Alcohol Inks.  Well I did the usual thing and made a polished stone type bg but not her!  No she did this fabulous Swoosh thingy.  Sooooo classy.  So here are my attempts to come up with my own versions (or rather, copy, lol).

So for my first cards I used lovely shiny card and swooshed Red Pepper and Wild Plum Alcohol Inks across the middle.  Then I added the butterfly (Stampin' Up Nature Walk) and the sentiments (one from Hero Arts Anytime messages and one unknown).  Finished off by matting onto matching coloured card and then popping them onto white card blanks.  And I have to admit, these are probably more of a C.A.S.E. job.

These two are slightly more 'me'.  I added blender solution to my inks (Butterscotch and Lemonade) and found the colour too weak so my swoosh hardly showed.  Then I had the brilliant idea of going over the line of ink again and again with a stamping motion.  I quite like this effect.  I added the sweet little bee (again from SU Nature Walk) in Saddle Brown StazOn, stamped an extra bee for each card, cut it out and mounted it with a sticky pad.  These were then mounted onto  matching card and again popped onto white card blanks.  I have to say I rather like these and no doubt will be making lots more like this. 

Dream Valley Challenge 14 - Colour Theme

This week at Dream Valley we have  a colour challenge for you:

Fab Zingy colours, aren't they, LOL.  And we are being sponsored again this week by the Fab Stitchy Bear who are offering a $10 voucher for their store.

I made my bg paper by sponging Brilliance Inks (Pearlescent Yellow, Orange and Lime) onto white card.  Then I cut out squares and added some silhouette stamps to the bottom (I used Hot Off The Press Edges and Borders and Botanicals stamps and Clear Choice 20 Best Friends).  Next I printed the fabulous Rainbow Magic Silouette images from Stitchy onto acetate, added a bit of bling to their wings with a Sakura Stardust pen, cut out squares and fixed it over by bg using different coloured eyelets.  Finally I added the images to some white square cards.

ATC Challenge 8 - Wings

Our new challenge over at ATC Challenges is Anything Goes with the option of having Wings on your ATC.  We have a fab price of Tim Holtz Adage Tickets so come along and have a go.

For my ATC I started with paper that had been coloured with Magnolia Magenta Gold Starburst STaibn and Gold Glimmer Mist.  Then I stamped the fairy, flowers and butterflies (all Labvinia stamps).  I restamped the fairy's wings onto vellum, cut them out and added sparkle with Sakura Stardust pens before adding them to my fairy.  I also added a bit of sparkle to the butterflies and Crystal tickles to the butterflies.

Not done this for ages

I don't know when I last played with Teabag folding!  But I signed up for a swap and found these lovely flower shaped teabag papers that I printed out ages ago.  I did try to look up the site I got them from but it's no longer there.  I added a Paper Mania bling brad to the centre and attached it to card that had been run through my Cuttlebug using a Marianne Designables folder.  The sentiment is from Stampscape and stamped in Stampin' Up Melon Mambo to match the backing card.

Parchment Birthday card

I made this birthday card for a friend who does beautiful parchment work.  The cupcake is from a pattern by Kate Price in the Jan 2010 Parchment Magazine and the border was made using a Multi Grid (no. 6).  I added a bit of sparkly Sakura pen to the cherry to finish it off.

Dream Valley Challenge 13 - Distressing

Over at Dream Valley Challenges this week the theme is Distressed.   This could be using distress inks, distress your papers, or go wild and distress everything.  We have two sponsors this week.  The fab One Stop Card Crafts are offering a £10 voucher for their on-line store, and the Digi Doodle Shop are offering a $10 voucher.  Go check out the cards by my teamies, but here is mine:

I used the fab 1930 Roadster from Digi Doodles for my card that I was lucky enough to win a few weeks ago.  I coloured my image with Derwent Studio Pencils to give it that vintage look and cut it out with Nestabilities Labels Four.  The background paper came from a Hono Value Pad (fab papers and really cheap!).  I added a strip of card that I ran through my Cuttlebug using Tim Holtz Texture Fade folder Retro Circles, stamped a couple of tickets (Inkadinkado Paperwork Greetings stamped in Stampin' Up Soft Suede) and punched a circle adding a sentiment from Hero Arts Anytime Messages.  I distressed all my papers and cards using Distress Inks in Old Paper, Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap.

ATC Challenge 7 - All things summer

Come and find the summer over at ATC Challenges this week.  Here is my ATC.

I used a clear stamp from Personal Impressions and stamped it with Colorbox Pigmment in Aqua onto cream card, then added a bit more colour using Whispers pens.  I then matted and layered it onto some lovely icecream coloured cards. The sentiment was stamped in the same ink.  Then I added three cute little shell buttons.