Feeling a little bit dotty

Just a couple of projects I made this week using polka dots. I just love my polka dots!

My card is for Papertake Weekly's Sketch Challenge #73, Hope You Can Cling To Challenge #31 to be inspired by the outdoors and CC396 to use Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive and Very Vanilla/Whisper White. Now I know these are very traditional colours for Christmas but I'm not yet ready to make my Christmas cards - still too early, so I used my new Memory Box dies to come up with this one.

Recipe:

My next project I absolutely love! These are the Hallowe'en gifts I made for my work friends, which I'll be giving to them when we go back to school on Monday. A little late I know but I had so much fun making them. I'm sure they'll love them!

And this is 6 of them, just about squeezed into my light box.

Recipe:
And that's all from me today folks! Thanks for stopping by.

Only a few challenges done today...

I didn't have my usual cardmaking day yesterday as I went to the Stampin' Up training event down in Reading and didn't get back until 8:40pm and I certainly didn't have the energy to do any card making then that's for sure! It was a lovely day meeting up with all the rest of my team and other SU demo friends. I have got loads of swaps to sort out now and a ton of ideas for inspiration!

I managed to do 4 cards today for a few challenges and this is the first one. It is for the Our Creative Corner Sketch Challenge #7, Our Creative Corner's other challenge - Think Easter and Sketch 'n' Color #3 to use Apricot Appeal, Lavender Lace, Certainly Celery and Whisper White. (It was confusing trying to work out what Mattgrun was in English until I remembered I could view the German SU catty online and could work it out from there!)

Recipe:

Stamps: A Good Egg, Polka Dot Background

Papers: Apricot Appeal, Lavender Lace, Whisper White, Certainly Celery DSP (retired)

Inks: Basic Black, Lavender Lace ink and marker, Certainly Celery marker, Apricot Appeal marker, Barely Banana marker

Accessories: Circle Nestabilities, Card Candy from Craftworks Cards

My next card is another Easter card and is for Mojo#130 and Just Us Girls #25 to use Light Brown, Light Blue, Yellow and Light Green. I used Creamy Caramel, Bashful Blue, So Saffron and Old Olive, which technically is NOT really a light green, but as it was in the DSP I chose to use, I went with that one. I really struggled with this sketch for some reason. It just didn't work for me at all and the Old Olive panel just looks wrong in my opinion!

Recipe:

Stamps: Loads of Love and Loads of Love Accessories

Papers: Creamy Caramel, So Saffron, Whisper White, Junior Varsity DSP (retired)

Inks: Basic Black, SU Markers in Bashful Blue, Basic Gray, Old Olive, Blush Blossom, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink

Accessories: Old Olive twill (from an old US mini catalogue), Circle Nestabilities, Piercing Tool and Mat Pack, EK Success Wavy Border Punch

Yet another Easter card up next and is for Stampin' Royalty's #11 - the sketch and for Papertake's Weekly Challenge to use Lilac and Lemon! I haven't used any High Hopes Stamps for ages - must get them all out again soon.

Recipe:


Stamps: On Top Of The World, Single Chick and sentiment all from High Hopes Stamps


Papers: Lovely Lilac, Barely Banana, Non SU White, DSP from Papermania (from upteen years ago)


Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic Ciaos, Lovely Lilac ink and marker


Accessories: Circle Nestabilities, lemon organza ribbon and lilac sparkle twill from stash

My last card for today was for Just Add Ink's #9 - the sketch (although I didn't strictly stick to it - I moved the sentiment and forgot the brads at the top - oops!) and for Stacey's Curtain Call #22 to use Real Red, Pink Passion, Yoyo Yellow, Whisper White and Basic Black! Yikes what a colour combo that is! But I kind of like it!

I used the scrunched up flowers technique that Jane demonstrated at the Reading event yesterday and whilst the vellum isn't as bright as cardstock would have been I like the slightly muted colours. I also added lots of sparkle using glitter on the edges of the flower and now my entire carpet has red and gold flecks in it! Don't you just love how glitter gets everywhere even when you only use the tiniest bit?!

Recipe:

Stamps: Bella's Border wheel, Sincere Salutations

Papers: Yoyo Yellow, Basic Black, Pink Passion, Whisper White, Vellum from Papermania (my SU vellum cardstock was too thick so I must get some of the vellum paper instead)

Inks: Basic Black wheel ink cartridge, Real Red, Pink Passion, Yoyo Yellow

Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Black Brads (hidden in the middle of the vellum flowers)

And that's all my cards for today. I did also make 4 Easter mini baskets which I'll upload in another post as it was for this fortnight's Inspiring Inkin' Challenge.

Thanks for looking!

Vannessa x

Only a few challenges today

Only because I'm saving some for tomorrow's Sale-A-Bration blog hop! So you'll have to come back tomorrow for a few more!

Today's first is for Stamp With Us' sketch challenge and Splitcoast Stampers Color Challenge #254.

Recipe:

Stamps: Best Wishes and More, Say It With Scallops

Papers: Soft Suede, Ruby Red, Whisper White, Bashful Blue DSP

Inks: Soft Suede, Ruby Red, Bashful Blue

Accessories: Soft Suede polka dot ribbon, Scallop Square punch, Scallop Edge punch, Paper Piercer

Number 2 is for Color Throwdown #76, Charisma Cardz #3 to use fruity colours which I think these really are and Mojo #122!

The So Saffron on the background panel looks more peachy than saffron in the photo but I can assure you it really is So Saffron!

Recipe:

Stamps: Kindred Spirits from Verve

Papers: Old Olive, Melon Mambo, So Saffron, Whisper White

Inks: Old Olive, Melon Mambo, So Saffron

Accessories: So Saffron grosgrain ribbon, Oval Nestabilities

And my final project for today is a cute little picnic basket using one of Lauren Meader's old templates for the Just Us Girls challenge #17. My printer is well and truely kaputt and rather than wasting money on a new one that could be better spent on stamping supplies I print things out at work! Tut tut!! But as I'm not at work until Monday I couldn't use one of Lauren's new templates so I used one of her old ones from when she designed for Papertrey Ink. This is Pack A Picnic and I so LOVE this template! It's one of the best ones Lauren has ever done! I made the small one to put some little chocolates in as a little gift when I need one.

This is the picnic box with the lid on and the following picture shows the flower on top better.

Recipe:

Stamps: None

Papers: really Rust, Old Olive, Spiced Cider DSP (retired)

Inks: None

Accessories: Pack A Picnic template, Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, Old Olive brads, Scalloped circle punch, Boho Blossoms punch, Latte Buttons

Well I hope you've enjoyed my few creations today and come back again tomorrow for another installment!

Virtual Stamp Night Weekend

Every couple of months or so Splitcoast Stampers hold a Virtual Stamp Night (VSN), which is a large number of card making/crafting challenges over a Friday evening and all day Saturday. You have until 10pm PST on Sunday night to complete and upload 19 challenges, so a lot of card making! You only get 45 minutes to complete each challenge as well, so it's busy, busy, busy!

I managed to do 17 challenges this time (normally it's only 12 or so) - I only missed out 2 of them! One was to use your iron to melt wax crayons to make a background - I have no idea where my iron is as I don't iron (I send my ironing off to get done!) and the last challenge was to make something heart shaped - an easy challenge but I was too crafted out by then and was shattered.

All the details are in my gallery over at SCS here - there's just too many to list here!

Here are the photos....

Challenge A - Sketch Challenge

Challenge B - Colour Combo Challenge

Challenge C - Use a stamp you don't like
Challenge D - Use new stash on your card

Challenge E - Monochromatic Card

Challenge F - Use the split negative technique

Challenge G - Use a quote from the film "The Princess Bride" for inspiration

Challenge H - Show your obsessions

Challenge J - Acetate Card

Challenge K - Use a long lost stamp

Challenge L - Use inchies

Challenge M - Celebrity Crush

Challenge N - Use as much stuff as you can that begins with L

Challenge O - Make a card using the Joy Fold Technique

Challenge P - Follow the card recipe

Challenge Q - Make a love card with NO pink, red, white or hearts!

Challenge R - Use feathers of some kind

This VSN really made me challenge myself. I tried a new card technique (challenge O), used colour combos I would not normally pick myself (challenges B, L and P), used new or never used before stamps (challenges A, B, C, D, E, H, J, L, N, P and R - wow lots I've never used before!) and SU colours I've never used before (Challenges B, P and R). I'm really happy with all my creations, although I do need to go back and add extra bits to a couple of them - like glitter glue, which I just didn't have the time to do. Hope you've enjoyed looking too - be sure to check out all the galleries over on SCS.

So as you can see a lot of card making but lots of fun to be had too! Make sure you join in the fun next time VSN is on!

High Hopes challenge #3

High Hopes Stamps set challenges on their blog every Sunday and I try to do them when I get the chance. The only rules other than those set by the actual challenge is to use High Hopes Stamps, which gives me a great excuse to buy some more every month or so. Being in the UK limits how much we can import before we get charged with highly expensive customs charges, so I tend to order about $30 worth of stamps at a time. If you haven't seen them before you MUST check out their website http://www.highhopesstamps.com/ - they have the cutest little stamps!!


Anyway challenge #3 was to use stitching on your card. Now I can't sew at all and don't own a sewing machine, so I had to use faux stitching on this little notecard.



Recipe:


Stamps - Dunno Duck and sentiment both from High Hopes Stamps, faux stitching stamp from Hot Off The Press


Paper - SU love notes in Whisper White, Groovy Guava DP from SU, Barely Banana and non-SU white cardstock


Inks - Versafine Onyx Black, Copic Ciao Markers in E35 Chamois, E33 Sand, E31 Brick Beige, Y15 Cadmium Yellow, YR02 Light Orange and YR04 Chrome Orange


Accessories - Clear Embossing Powder

Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge 32

Taylor's cupcake sketch challenge this week was cute and I finally had some time to do a bit of card making after being back at work and shattered all week.


This is the sketch for challenge #32:





and this is my card based on it:





I found this paper in my stash of freebies (usually papers I get from card magazines) so based my colours on that. I got this Ollie and Olivia stamp the other day after a snap decision that I wanted some Stampendous stamps (I ordered one of each of Fluffles, Changito, Ollie and the Chick stamps!) I coloured the image in with my Copic Ciaos and added some tiny Primas to the branch to add a bit of pink to it.


I was going to use the whole of the Happy Bird Day stamp but the Bird day bit was just too big for a semi circle so I just used the day part instead.


Recipe


Stamps - Ollie and Olivia from Stampendous, Happy Bird Day from High Hopes


Paper - White card blank from Craft Central, pink, blue and white cs from local craft store, DP from card magazine (not sure which one though)


Inks - Versafine Onyx Black, Copic Ciao markers in E37 Sepia, E31 Brick Beige, E33 Sand, E35 Chamois, YR07 Cadmium Orange, G05 Emerald Green and 0 Colorless Blender.


Accessories - Prima flowers, Self-adhesive gems from Hero Arts, Blue organza ribbon from local craft store

Easter Cards

I got my Easter cards done really early this year using some gorgeous stamps from Stampin' Up and High Hopes Stamps. Here's just 3 of them for you to look at.

Hop Along Hallie

This one uses Hop Along Hallie by High Hopes Stamps and was also done for Sketch Challenge 83 on Splitcoast Stampers here.

I started with a simple pale pink base and rounded the corners on the outer edge to go with using the circles on the sketch challenge. I added a simple layer of the designer paper with circles on (still keeping to the theme of circles see!). The image was stamped onto white cs and coloured in using chalks with a wet paintbrush to make the colours more defined. I wanted a soft look but not as pale as the chalks usually give.I cut the white circle out with my nestabilities and embossed it (you can almost see the embossing where the sky and grass finish). The pink scalloped circle is also a nestabilities dies. I just love these dies! The sentiment circles were cut out first and then the greeting was positioned using my stamp positioner and embossed with pink embossing powder.

Recipe:

Stamps - Hop Along Hallie and Fancy Hoppy Easter by High Hopes Stamps.

Papers - Pink cardstock from local stamp store, white cardstock from local stationery store, Designer Paper is Spring Fling by Imaginisce

Inks - Versafine Onyx Black and chalks

Accessories - Nestabilties circles and scalloped circles, clear embossing powder, weird ribbony thing from HOTP Icy Rainbow ribbon pack

Dotty Chick Trio

I saw this card on SCS and just had to CASE it. I changed little bits on it but generally kept it the same. I paper pieced the egg shells and the top half of them are mounted on foam pads (dimensionals)

The card base is a peach one by Craftonic in A6 size (UK sizes). I used scraps of blue, yellow, pink and green - they could be from anywhere but most of my older card stock has come from Craft Central or the Papermill Shop in their A4 card boxes pick and mix selection. Now I'm starting to buy the Stampin Up cs naming colours won't be so much of a problem! I used the solid dots stamp from A Good Egg set from Stampin Up on each strip in the different coloured inks and trimmed them all to about 1 3/4". I stamped 3 chicks onto white cs from WHSmith and chalked in the bodies. I then stamped the chick 6 more times on white scraps and used the same coloured inks to add the dots. I then cut out the shells and positioned 3 over the full stamped images and the other 3 were used as the top shells. I added the Happy Easter greeting from the same set and chalked round the edges in yellow like the chicks just to add a bit of colour. It looked odd just being plain white. The grosgrain ribbon is a yellowy colour from Dovecraft that costs £1 for a 5 metre spool from any Dovecrafts stockists. Such a bargain!

Recipe:

Stamps - A Good Egg by Stampin' Up

Papers - Peach card base by Craftonic (I dislike peach as a colour so am trying to get rid of these blank bases!!), blue, green, yellow and pink cardstock from local stamp store, white card stock from local stationery store

Inks - Versafine Onyx Black, Stampin' Up Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Barely Banana and Pretty in Pink

Accessories - chalks, yellowy ribbon by Dovecraft (it's more yellow irl than the peachy colour the camera shows), foam pads

Posing Bunny and Hot Chicks

This bunny was so cute, she was dying to be coloured in pink.

I started this card by following sketch challenge SC53 on Spiltcoast Stampers here. I used a white craftonic 15cm square card base (when I first started stamping/cardmaking I used card bases with the envelopes all the time, so that I didn't have to worry about getting my sizes correct! As a result of that I have so many different card bases in different colours, sizes and shapes and I'm frantically trying to use them up when I can!) I used Imaginisce designer paper in Hot Chicks for the background layer. I already has glitter on it so is perfect for adding that bit of extra bling. I dismantled some unsent Easter cards from last year that were simply put quite awful!! I had made them using ideas from a card magazine and they sucked! I pulled all the bits off that I could keep and kept the back of the cards for scrap cs. And this is where the lime green ricrac comes from. I believe I got it free with the magazine that gave my the awful ideas for the cards.


I stamped my image on to white cs from WHSmith and coloured her in using Twinkling H20s. I also did a version using chalks and the result wasn't as nice. I did chalk the sky and grass though as the colours are much more muted. I mounted the image onto pink pearlescent paper from my local stamp store and then again onto the reverse on the Imaginisce paper used on the card base. The Hoppy Easter greeting was stamped onto white cs and then embossed with pink EP (I also added an edge round the cs using the versamark pad and embossed that too!) but the white didn't look right so I chalked it all in yellow. The eggs were stamped using versamark and embossed in lilac and pink embossing powders from Blonde Moments. Each egg was cut out and coloured in using Twinkling H2Os again, but I'm not sure I like the colours. The embossing powders have almost hidden the pattern (that's Papermania stamps for you!). I did think about putting some Liquid Applique on her tail but never got round to doing it!

Recipe:

Stamps - Posing Bunny and Fancy Hoppy Easter by High Hopes Stamps, Egg Border by Papermania

Papers - White square card blank by Craftonic, Designer Paper is Hot chicks by Imaginisce, Pink pearlescent from lss and white cardstock from local stationery store

Inks - Versafine Onyx Black and Versamark for the sentiment

Accessories - green ric-rac, chalks for sentiment, Twinkling H2Os, lilac and pink embossing powders by Blonde Moments