Wedded Bliss...

Another large 8" x 8" card stamped with Lofty and his bride from the Joanna Sheen Lofty Celebrations stamp set.

I had a great time combining loads of different stamps and elements to make up this card. My daughter thinks it would be perfect for a couple getting married on a tropical beach or even better a beach in Kenya so if you know anyone that is this could be the card for you!

Materials used:

• Just Married Lofty stamp set - this set includes the wedding couple and the two different heart motives.
• Planter is from Art Impressions
• Trellising was trellis border die by Cuttlebug and then built up to form an archway
• leaves are punched and tiny paper flowers are from stash
• purple card, silver mirri, white organza ribbon and peel offs are also from stash

Challenges:

• Die Cut Dreams - Wedded Bliss
• Passion for Promarkers - any colours but include an animal

Have a great weekend everyone and thank you for all the fantastic comments that you have left this week.

Favourite Flowers...

Can't believe it's got to Thursday and this is the first card I've put on my blog showing the new stamps I worked on recently for Joanna Sheen. Last Sunday saw the release of both a new CD and 12 new stamp sets to celebrate the 30 year anniversary of the Joanna Sheen company.

As Joanna says herself she was a child prodigy and started in the business at around the age of 10 - lol - not sure whether to believe that one or not, but seeing as she is such a lovely lady I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.

The carnation stamps I used are from the Hothouse Flower collection and are so beautiful to work with. I used Promarkers to colour them, but they would be fabulous done in any colouring medium.

Having been to a demo day at Whichcraft in Doncaster I was really intrigued by a sliding mechanism they were demonstrating on cards. I really liked the idea of 'something to pull' and a 'secret message' combined on the one card so I set about using the idea.

Since spending hours working out how to do this I've actually spotted a great tutorial at Split Coast Stampers so if you fancy having a go do check this out. It will save you hours in time and a lot of wasted card believe me - I know!!

One thing to bear in mind so that the mechanism glides smoothly is not have anything that is raised up on the inner sections. The peel offs I've used do slide but stamping would have been better.

Materials used:

• green, cream and gold card
• vintage paper (unknown source)
• Carnation Stamp Set by Joanna Sheen
• Promarkers
• gold peel offs and organza ribbon from stash

Challenges:

• Daring Cardmakers - favourite things (stamps are from range of Favourite Flowers, organza ribbon and peel offs are just indispensable).
• One Stop Craft Challenge - celebrations (Happy Birthday)
  

Inspired by Sheena Douglas...

This is one of the cards inspired by the Sheena Douglas workshop I was lucky enough to attend last weekend. It's more or less identical to the one we made in class except that on this one I didn't test the 'heat resistant' acetate to it's limit resulting in a buckled creation!

Materials used:

• Sheena Douglas Scene Stamps
• black card, thick acetate
• green stazon for stamping branches on to acetate (mental note should have used same green for trees but too late now)
• white glaze pen and ultra fine glitter
• Promarkers and gold sentiment peel off

This card fits the challenge at:

• My Time to Craft - 'rip it up' - the snow scene has ripped paper to create the snowy edges
• Winter Wonderland - open theme
  

I think Sheena's idea of the folded card sandwiched between a sheet of acetate is just fantastic and I will be using again and again I'm sure.

As I needed a Halloween card to send to card making buddy in a forum I belong to I thought I would have a try at a black version. This was just so much fun to make - wish I needed some more Halloween cards.


Materials used:

• black card and thick acetate
• clip art by PC Crafter
• sentiment stamp by unknown(but really rubbish one as peeled of wooden block and really awful to stamp with)
• bat die cuts made using Cuttlebug die and embossing folder
• glitzy border peel off by Anita's

My card is for the following challenges:

• The Cuttlebug Spot - Boo - orange, green and black
• Rainbow Lady - Halloween
• Stamping for the Weekend - Have a hauntingly good time.
• Stamp Something - Halloween
• Bubbly Scrumptious - ghosts and ghoulies
• Project Tuesday - stair step card - this is a variation on that theme - a sort of stair step with an acetate roof.

Have a great day everyone and speaking as someone who once screamed the place down after opening the door to someone in a 'Scream' mask do be careful if you hear a knock at the door!!. The little lad who scared me half to death was only 8 and I scared him as much as he scared me. His mum made him come and apologise - oh why am I such a wimp?

Birthday Celebrations...

As promised here is Tony's other birthday card. This was made using the same stamp set by Inkadinkado, but this time I chose to stamp the images of skulls and crosses. These were stamped on to core'rdinations card stock and then sanded to give a really grungy look.

The background paper with stars and guitars is from the Rock Star stack by DCWV.

My card is also for the challenge at the One Stop Craft Challenge where they are celebrating their blogersary and have the theme of 'celebrations' as their challenge this week.

Pink Elephant Day and an abundance of challenges...

Yeah, Monday again and time for a new challenge at The Pink Elephant. This week it's a recipe from Ella's kitchen and her ingredients are black, (could be black stamping, black card or maybe black embellishments), distressing and hardware (brads, clips, eyelets, etc).

I decided to have a go at some super simple Halloween treat bags made mainly by using my scalloped and plain circle nesties. The black part of the recipe is pretty easy to spot and on my 'You're driving me batty' bag I distressed the embossing and ripped the sentiment on the tag too. My hardware is the brad holding the tag in place and a some cool paper clips to hold the bag closed.

The circular images - bat - witch's hat and cat are all digis by my super talented friend, Robin, at The Pink Elephant and if you like the look of them pop over HERE and pick them up for free. Thank you so much for these Robin - they are just great.


Now as I am a great believer in combining challenges my treat bags are also for the challenges at...

• Everybody's Art - Halloween
• My Time to Craft - Halloween Colours
• Digital Tuesday - Things with Wings (bats)
• Crafty Creations - All Hallow's Eve
• Creative Inspirations - Halloween
• Rainbow Lady - Halloween
• Cute Card Thursday - Candy Corns
• Stampin for the Weekend - A Haunting Good Time
• Dare You to Digi - No squares allowed
• Stamp Something - Halloween Somethings
• Daring Card Makers - at least FIVE of your favourite things on your project - mine are gems, gem brads, swiss dots cuttlebug embossing, tags, and scalloped nesties. Oh and those jellies are pretty good too, but they don't usually feature in my craft work.
  
• Bubbly Scrumptious - Ghosts, Ghoulies and long legged beasties.

Oh my goodness think that could be taking challenge combining to the next level - phew think I will take the rest of the week off, but then again I need to play with all the fantasitic ideas I picked up at the Sheena Douglas workshop.

Wow Sheena is just so inspirational - Saturday really was a day to remember - so many good ideas and so much craft shopping too. I will be showing my makes, but having said that I don't want to spoil the course for anyone else going so maybe it might be better kept secret.

Oh forgot to add to this post - a little puzzle! For those who follow my blog regularly can you spot the bag of goodies for Laura?

Yep I know it's just tooooooooooooo easy - have a good week everyone.