Summertime...

Another beach scene card this time made for a forum Round Robin that I'm involved in.  The card has been received so I can safely put a photo on here.

It is actually a scene that would have worked great with the acetate style of card in my post below, but this time I decided to do a flat version.  The background was created using Crafty Ann's beach scene digi.  I must admit I did remove Ann's chairs from the scene to make way for my stamped ones.  Ann was fine about me doing this as she loves to see her digis used in different ways.

I think the two ladies are by Pink Cat Studios, but the stamp has been in my collection for so long I'm really not sure.  Great stamp though and it seems to make an appearance each summer alongside the lovely smaller shell stamps that were also in the set.

The scene was built up in stages - printed on blue card first of all and then white so that the palm tree could be coloured using Promarkers and finally sandpaper cut out to create the beach.  Time consuming, but great fun.

My card is for the challenges at...

• Sir Stampalot - Lazy Hazy Days of Summer
• Practical Scrappers - Stash older than one year (my stamp is way older than that)

Off for some retail therapy now.  Have an amazing weekend everyone.

Ann xxx

Flowers for a friend...

and I really hope the post man has delivered this card by now and it's safe to add the card to my blog!  I can't hold the card back any longer as I used the sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday to create the card.  If you haven't been to their challenge blog do check it out as they do the most gorgeous sketches each week.

To create the centre piece I've used a sentiment by Pink Cat Studio and combined it with one of the fab flowers from my treasured Kanban tree sets.  The DP and plain green card is also by Kanban and matches the stamp.  As you can see now I know that you're supposed to thread ribbon through this Marianne flower die there's no stopping me!  I love these dies and I think my birthday wish list is going to be made up of quite a few of them.  A non blogging friend showed me a card she had made using the poinsetta and it was just fabulous so that is definitely on my wish list.

If you have these dies and have had problems getting the cut piece out of the die check out Top Tip Tuesday on Bah! Humbug!  I had a flash of inspiration and found this works a treat.

Hope my friend loves her card.  She is a very special person - always there to give advice and just generally a star.  Not mentioning any names, but you know who you are.

My card is also for the following challenge...

• Pollycraft Monday Challenge - summer blooms

Have a fabulous day everyone.  Sun's shining here, but how long will it last - who knows.

Ann xxx

Pink Elephant Summer Challenge

Yes this week at The Pink Elephant we are celebrating 'Summer' ! I know we don't seem to have really had one yet properly in England this year, but we can always pretend and in any case I have loads of happy memories of being on the beach at Great Yarmouth in the rain making sandcastles. No offence to Great Yarmouth it was probably raining everywhere else in England too.

My Summer card has a cute Cuddly Buddly stamped image for the focal point. I coloured the image with Promarkers and then realised that none of my pinks matched the paper I had chosen to take to Irene's with me. Yes this was made at Irene's and she encouraged me to use her pearls, which I really like as an addition.

Due to the non matching colours I decided to do some paper piecing - hmmmmmmm make mental note at this point to never ever paper piece images that have loads of detail. It took many layers to get the right finish on this card, but I do like the end result.

The shells are from a stamp set by Pink Cat Studio.

Beach Babes from a sketch by Katharina...

At http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/ Katharina has created this 'stripey' sketch to challenge crafters.

I tried really hard to follow the map carefully but somehow my card ended up 'landscape' rather than 'portrait'. Same sketch though - just from a different angle!

I am going on holiday soon with a really good friend and am going to send her this card just to say 'Are you excited?'. There will also be a little note inside to say that I'm the sexy one in the chair on the left. LOL!

Materials used:

• Papers by English Paper Company
• Pink Cat Studio Rubber Stamp Set
• Studio G Clear sentiment
• white base card
• Lyra aqua crayons