Turtle Soup August Mini Crop

I might have been absent from this blog lately, but I promise you I have been creating!  Not a lot of scrapbooking going on, but I have been making cards in between work and family life.

In August the team at Turtle Soup hosted a "Back-to-School" themed Mini Crop and I made the following projects.....

Thanks for stopping by!

Kraft Plus | January Challenge

I am playing along with Kraft Plus again and this month the challenge is all about incorporating your handwriting into your project.

I hate my handwriting but I know that in years to come, after I am long gone, anything with my handwriting on it will be treasured by my children and grandchildren.  I wish I had more things with my own mother's handwriting on them.

For this page, I wrote a letter to myself on a Kraft cardstock base offering words of wisdom and encouragement for the challenges I will face in the year ahead.  It was quite a therapeutic process, but once the process had served it's purpose, I partially obscured the writing with white gesso and watercolour paints.

I used leftover scraps from an old Scrappy Canary scrapbooking kit and came up with this.....

Thanks for stopping by!

CAS-ual Fridays | CFC144

I decided to play along with CAS-ual Friday's TicTacToe Challenge this month, and I made a card featuring stencilling, die-cutting and embossing.

I started with some watercolour paper and a Stampin' Up star stencil.  I applied Versamark Ink through the stencil and then white heat embossed the stars.  I then watercoloured the background with Distress Inks in Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio and Fossilized Amber.

I die-cut some balloons from plain white cardstock with dies from MFT and then coloured those with the same Distress Inks using a foam ink blending tool.

I took a sentiment from Avery Elle and white heat embossed it on some vellum before trimming it to a banner shape.

Some silver thread for the balloon tails were the final finishing touch.

Thanks for dropping by!

Feeling Sketchy | Sketch #130

Although I'm no longer on the DT at Feeling Sketchy, I do like to play along when I can.  I needed a birthday card for a special lady so I decided to use Sketch #130 for inspiration.

I started by stamping, making and heat embossing a floral image from Hero Arts.  Then I watercoloured the flowers and background with a cheap set of pearlised watercolours I got from Spotlight.  I was pleasantly surprised that I could blend them to achieve some shading and they behaved quite well when I coloured the background.

I then stamped and heat embossed a sentiment from Avery Elle and matted that on some black cardstock before adding baker's twine and scattering some sequins here and there.

I will be sure to use these watercolours more in the future- the subtle shimmer is lovely in real life!

Just Add Ink | #283

I'm playing along with Just Add Ink again as I needed a birthday card and I spotted their sketch to inspire me.

I started with some Tim Holtz Watercolour Paper and a Heidi Swapp stencil through which I applied some Texture Paste in a random fashion.  Once that had dried I used various pink and mauve shades of Distress Inks to watercolour around the dried paste.

I then took a piece of white cardstock and gold heat embossed a background stamp from Hero Arts and cut it to a banner shape.

Using the same Distress Inks I used on the background, I stamped and diecut images from Stampin' Up's Flower Patch set.  After applying the ink, I spritzed the stamps a couple of times with water to create a looser look to my stamping.  

I gold heat embossed a sentiment from the Flower Patch set and cut it into another banner shape.

A loose nest of gold thread and some gold sequins were the final finishing touches.

This was a fun card to make as it's not my usual clean and simple style, but I know the recipient will love it :-)

Feeling Sketchy | World Cardmaking Day Challenge

The Feeling Sketchy Team are running a special challenge to celebrate World Cardmaking Day and here is the inspiration photo.....

Although it's not Autumn here in Australia, I decided to play along with these gorgeous colours and make a birthday card.

I added Distress Inks in Bundled Sage, Wild Honey and Spiced Marmalade to some watercolour paper, then diecut a tag from the panel.  I then diecut another four tags from white cardstock to add dimension before popping it all back into the negative space.  I painted and clear embossed a chipboard "happy" from 2Crafty and white heat embossed a sentiment from Avery Elle on a strip of black cardstock.

I added some black and white twine to the tag to co-ordinate with the sentiment strip.

Thanks for stopping by- all the challenge details can be found on the Feeling Sketchy blog.

Feeling Sketchy | Sketch #125

We have a new sketch to play with at the Feeling Sketchy Challenge Blog and our challenge sponsor is Polkadoodles.

Here is the sketch we're playing with.....

I went a bit crazy and created two cards! For this first one I used an image from Polkadoodles and used watercolours to create a shaker cards filled with fine pink glitter and chunkier gold glitter.

I used dies from Spellbinders to create my shaker and starburst embellishment and stamps and a die from Stampers Anonymous and Tim Holtz for my sentiment.  Everything was created from watercolour paper and I used a cheap kid's watercolour palette to colour everything.

My next card is another shaker and I used stamps from Avery Elle, inks from Stampin' Up and a small doily die from MFT.  The shaker is filled with a mixture of sequins from my stash.

 Be sure to head over to the Feeling Sketchy Blog for more inspiration and all the challenge details.

CAS-ology | Nautical Challenge

I mentioned in my previous post that I was playing along with some card challenges to get the creative juices flowing and here is a card inspired by the Nautical theme over at the CAS-ology Blog.

I decided to do some watercolouring with Distress Inks to create a softer colour palette than I usually use.  I also stamped in Versafine Sepia Ink instead of my usual black, and I heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  The stamps were from Stampin' Up, the wood veneer anchor from Studio Calico and the tag die from Sizzix/Tim Holtz.

Thanks for stopping by!

Feeling Sketchy | Sketch #122

We have a new sketch to play with at the Feeling Sketchy Challenge Blog and our challenge sponsor is Creative Embellishments.

Creative Embellishments is a small, family owned company located in western New York that was started by a dynamic husband and wife team. Michael Kramer is a prolific graphic artist who creates websites, mobile websites, logos and images for print design. Nicolle is a stay at home mother of 4 and a passionate artist who has been actively creating for over 8 years. She enjoys altered art, mixed media applications and all styles of scrapbooking. What started out as a hobby, in order to pass down memories and family history to her children, evolved once she discovered the vast online community of artists and scrappers 3 years ago. She has been featured on numerous scrapbooking, challenge and top paper manufacturing websites; as well as, serving on many different design teams. She's also had the honor of having her work published in print magazines and a well-known sketchbook.

Here's Sketch #122.....

I decided to make a background on watercolour paper using a wash of Peacock Feathers Distress Ink.  While that dried I stamped the wreath from this stamp set with Ranger Black Archival Ink and die-cut it with the co-ordinating die.  I cut an additional two wreaths from white cardstock and layered them all together for extra dimension and durability.  

I then applied a very loose wash of Picked Raspberry Distress Ink to the wreath.

I stamped my sentiment from this Prima stamp set in Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink.

The finishing touch was some pink ribbon.  I did make this card just before Mother's Day, but this design would translate well to other occasions by simply stamping a different sentiment.

Be sure to head over to the Feeling Sketchy Blog for more inspiration and all the challenge details.