Urban Cool

Been busy working on a Birthday card and present for our Great Niece's 4th Birthday on Tuesday (aka tomorrow!).  I kind of got carried away working on things for Annie's "Fairy Door" and ended up really cutting it a bit fine with this week's entry to the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge - managed to post with 10 minutes to spare!

As soon as I saw the bird I knew I what I had to do! Yep, bring out my Tim Holtz stamp folder!

I teamed the Tim Holtz bird up with some Woodware Clear Magic Graffiti stamps and Crafter's Companion Walls and Corners Texture stamps.

Phew - now back to hopefully getting Annie's things assembled & finished tonight!

HB 2 Ewe

Ah well. that'll be that then, today is the last day of Summer (what Summer?) and that's the rain on once again! It's been a rather strange season warm and wet I think sums it up best!


This week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge certainly got me thinking about what that "Any Shape" could be and after a search through my dies I decided that I would use a fussy cut stamp instead.

 

 

 

I originally got this cute Rachelle Anne Miller "Love Ewe" stamp to go with the Lawn Fawn Hippo Birdie stamp & die set to make a Birthday card for my friend and thought it would be a nice shape to use for this design.

 

 

 

 

 

I created two backgrounds, a sky for the rectangle and a hillside meadow on the strip, using Tim Holtz Distress Inks and some torn paper masks.

 

 


Cardstock:
Image Supersmooth - White
Crelando - Blue

Stamp:
Crafter's Companion - Rachelle Anne Miller "Love Ewe"

Inks:
Memento - Tuxedo
Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Evergreen Bough, Faded Jeans

The Letter

I have had my eye on "Frou Frou" Art Deco-esque stamps from Crafter's Companion for a while and been having "do I, don't I" moments where they made it to the basket only to be taken out again. Last week I finally gave in and got some - the special offer and Club discount helped!

The main stamp I've used for this weeks Freshly Made Sketches Challenge is the Frou Frou 

"Love Letters" which I coloured using Promarkers. I thought that because of the sentiment I had in mind for her, "I'm leaving now to go and find myself. If I return before I get back please ask me to wait.", suggested that she perhaps ought to be blonde (no offence to any other blondes out there intended!). The sentiment is something I saw a while ago, thought it was a bit of fun, so made a note of for use later.

The other stamps, the floral corner and the lips, come from a couple of small packs of Royal Langnickel stamps I picked up at my local "Home Bargains" for the princely sum of 29p per set!

 

I have also entered the http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.co.uk/ "Anything Goes" challenge and http://cardsgalorechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ July "Use a stamp" Challenge.

Cardstock:

Image Supersmooth White

Create & Craft Single Sided Pearlised Pastels

 

Stamps:

Crafter's Companion - Frou Frou Love Letters

Royal Langnickel  - Hugs & Kisses

Royal Langnickel - Floral Touches

 

Inks:

Memento - Tuxedo Black

Letraset Promarkers - Various

Club Green DS Satin Ribbon - Black

Hugs & Kisses - FMS 187

Last weekend I had been looking for a new corner rounder punch as mine had decided it didn't want to play any more. I found an X-Cut one online which did both converse and inverse versions so I decided to order it.  The new punch arrived the same day as the new Freshly Made Sketches Challenge was published so imagine my surprise to see that it featured inverse corners!

 

Instead of using the inverse corners on the embellishment I made them a feature on the base of the card design and some Spellbinders Labels 4 for the "Hugs and Kisses" topper.

 

After the problems I had earlier with the new Spellbinders Sapphire butterfly die I wasn't really in the mood to put a butterfly on my card! Instead I decided use the Crafter's Companion "Moonbeam Meadow" stamp of two cute wee mice kissing - aw!

I had some of the nice PayPer Box turquoise cardstock left so used that as a starting point for my colour scheme and used my trusty Promarkers to co-ordinate.

 

 

 

 

Cardstock

Image Supersmooth - White

PayPer Box - Turquoise
Card Candy - White (coloured with Cool Aqua Promarker)

Embossing Folder:
Darice Dots

 

Dies/Stamps

Crafter's Companion Moonbeam Meadow
Sizzix - Small Hearts

Ink:
Memento Brilliance Trio "Tiramisu" - Black
Letraset Promarkers - Various

Ribbon:
Club Green - White with Silver

 

A Little Bird Told Me

It's Sunday, the sun is shining (in between the showers) and our garden is starting to bloom! I've had my fingers crossed since January after I took loppers to my dwarf James Grieve apple tree for the first time since I got it as a Birthday present around12 years ago. I'm pleased to say that it is now covered in gorgeous pink blossom so it's looking good for a nice crop this year! 

 

I picked up a "Quick Cards" magazine earlier in the week, I don't often buy magazines but it had a rather nice "Moonbeam Meadow" Stamp Set by Crafter's Companion as a "free gift".  The new set of Promarker Pens I bought as an almost, not quite, nearly, early, Birthday present to myself arrived yesterday so it was practice time!

 

Last night I stamped out some of the "Moonbeam Meadow" designs and set about colouring them, when I was finished I played about with some ideas to use for the  Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #186 

 

As this challenge is based on a sketch  containing a diagonal I was drawn to the design of on a sheet from one of my Trimcraft 6x6 paper pads, Spring in Bloom, which has the main pattern concentrated into the right hand corner. The paper was put into the trimmer at cut on the diagonal and then separated to elongate it to fit a rectangular card shape and to create an inner strip for embellishment.

  

 

 

 The edges of the diagonal were decorated with promarker coloured strips cut using the dot/dash edge die from Spellbinders Borderabilities "A2 Bracket Borders One" set with matching DS satin ribbon (photo shows it darker). The central strip was coloured with Promarker to match one of the pink colours on the background paper. The little flowers and pearls were also colour matched to those on the background paper. The circles  used for the Little Bird topper came from my "might come in handy at some point" box and are the inners left over from cutting out some Joy Craft Floral and Celtic Circles!

 

Cardstock:

Image - Super Smooth White

Trimcraft - Spring in Bloom
PayPer Box - Gold Pearlised

 
Dies:
Spellbinders - Borderabilities A2 Bracket Borders One
Joy Craft - Circle

Stamps:
Crafter's Companion - Moonbeam Meadow

Ink:
Versacolour - Sepia
Letraset Promarkers - Crimson, Dusky Rose, Rose Pink, Pastel Blue, Blue Pearl, Leaf Green, Grass