A quick card

Just a really quick birthday card for a work colleague today. Stamps are a mix - borders are Autumn Leaves and flowers are ISC and Basic Grey. Basically I stamped the borders, masked them with Post-Its and then stamped the flowers. Added a bit of colour and glittered the flowers and that was it!

I can't take any credit for this as it's a blatent rip off of a lovely card I received for my own birthday from my dear friend Gemma.

Entering this for Papertake Weekly (sparkly theme, used glitter) and Stamp Something for which the theme is celebrate.

Katy x

Gingersnaps Challenge - Pencils

The theme for this week’s Gingersnaps challenge is ‘Pencils’. I have to say I absolutely love my Coloursoft pencils. I used to really dislike colouring in but since I discovered these it’s a joy! They really do blend effortlessly and the colours give excellent coverage, even on coloured card like the Kraft base I’ve used here.

For my sample this week, I’ve use the pencils in two different ways. Here’s what I did.

Ingredients:
Stamps: Inkadinkado Morphic Bugs
Cardstock: Kraft; brown; white
Coloursoft (or Prismacolor) pencils, Sansodor and blending stumps
Distress Ink: Brushed Corduroy
Archival Ink: Coffee
Corrugated card
Sequin waste
Mini brads
Papermania brad making kit

1 Stamp the bee (Inkadinkado) in Coffee ink onto Kraft card. Colour the body of the bee and the honeycomb using the Coloursoft pencils. Use two colours on the bee and blend. For the two circles at the centre of the images colour just around the outline with dark orange, then using the Sansodor and a blending stump, blend the colour from the edges to the centre using circular motions. This creates a lovely graduated effect.

2 To make the bee ‘pop’ colour over his body with dark brown and black pencils, blend with a fine pointed stump taking care not to muddy the yellow areas.

3 For the background panel, take three coloured pencils and randomly scribble them over a piece of white card. I used a less sharp pencil for the main colour (yellow) and a sharp one for the dark orange so the latter created more obvious lines. Go over the whole background with Sansodor (keep dipping so the application is generous). Add more pencil and blend again if required.

4 Sponge brown in through a piece of sequin waste in places to look like honeycomb.

5 Assemble card as shown. I stamped and coloured part of the bee again to make a co-ordinating centre for my brad and sprayed the strip of corrugated card with Glimmer Mist.

Why not have a go at these techniques for the challenge? Do pop over and see what the rest of the Gingersnappers made too – loads of inspiration awaits you!

The story of the orange bone

Just another simple layout today. Papers are MME, pic is my gorgeous baby dog as usual! I used my 7 Gypsies Disclaimer stamps again - these are some of my faves. I keep reaching for them - this time I used the phrase 'Results not typical', as it went well with the journaling which is all about how Leo hardly ever takes the orange bone because he only likes toys that are red (weird, weird little dog).

Gingersnaps Challenge - Read

The theme for today's challenge on Gingersnap Creations is 'read'. Being a literal-minded sort, I've created a reading journal using my BIA for my contribution to the challenge. I love this stamp and I thought it appropriate as she looks like she is reading. I used up some Basic Grey paper I've had since the dawn of time, so that's another dent made in the stash mountain!

Materials...

Curious By Design stamps - Chere Amie

Stampendous stamps - Butterflies

Hero Arts stamp - Ledger

Elusive Images stamps - Curly Birds (flourish used inside)
Patterned papers

Chipboard pieces, 7 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches (covers)

Tim Holtz Idea-ology bookplate and brads

Letter stickers

Distress Ink: Barn Door; Brushed Corduroy

Versafine Ink: Black

Coloursoft pencils, Sansodor and blending stumps

Trim (Prima)

BIA and o-wire

Here's what I did:

1 Cover the chipboard pieces with paper leaving the reverse of the front cover uncovered until the after the bookplate is added later. On the front cover, add a panel of pink paper inked with Barn Door and with one corner rounded, and a panel of torn script paper inked with Brushed Cordoroy.

2 Stamp the girl (Curious by Design) onto a piece a plain Basic Grey paper and colour with pencils, blending the colours for a soft look. Round the top corner, ink the edges and add to the cover. Punch holes in the covers at this stage.

3 Stamp two butterflies, colour with pencils and cut out. Add along with the bookplate, trim and lettering as shown. Now you can cover the reverse of the front cover to hide the brads.

4 For the inside, stamp each page with the Hero Arts ledger stamp and the Elusive Images flourishes (or computer generate pages -believe me the stamping took an age!!!).

5 Bind the book and you are done.

I hope you like what I made - do pop and see what the rest of my lovely, talented teamies made and join in the challenge at Gingersnaps. If you don't want to make a journal, what about a bookmark or bookplate for this theme?

Katy x

Beside the seaside, beside the sea

This might be my fav layout ever! Not sure why - love the colours, love the photo, love the memories :). Brown and blue is my favourite colour combo and it's in evidence all over my house, including my craft room.

A couple of things I did on this layout:

-I used a rub-on onto contrasting cardstock and cut it out to make the 'seaweed' type embellishment;

-I inked all around the edge of the Kraft cardstock with Walnut Stain and Peeled Paint inks to mimic the colours of the rocks in the photo;

-I added some lengths of twine across the middle, I stuck them to a length of DST and then stuck the tape to the layout;

-The swirl at the top and the border across the middle are both stamps - Fancy Pants and Prima.

Thanks for looking :)

Katy xxx

UKS challenge

This is my take on the weekly challenge this week on UKS. The main part of the challenge was to make your own background paper, so I created the lovely swirly paper by sponging ink lightly over some Tattered Angels screens onto a piece of BG PP. I also 'made' the paper from which the bloom are created - I sprayed a piece of book text (strengthened with card) with Glimmer Mists in Vintage Pink, Passion Red and Gold and then used ISC Friends are Special stamps to make the blooms. I also stamped onto the BG letter stickers with script to tie them in better with the vintage look of the page.

Sorry the pics a bit wonky!

Also check out this blog candy - if you love anything inky, you'll love this from Charmed Cards and Crafts! Delicious candy here and here too.

Hippity Hoppity...

...it’s the Banana Frog blog hop! I hope you are enjoying the ‘spring’ themed creations? I decided that the obvious choice of subject matter to represent spring was flowers. I’d been meaning to scrap this photo of my beloved dog for ages – I just love how it appears for all the world like he’s leaning in to smell the flowers!

Banana Frog stamps I used were: Super Dreamy (flowers); Teen Tiny (small letters); Butterflies & Swirls
Other items: Versamagic inks Perfect Plumeria and Spring Pansy; Memento Ink Sweet Plum; purple scrapbook paper (unknown); Basic Grey Eva scrapbook paper; green card; white card; seed beads; brads; Diamond Stickles; chipboard letters; leaf frond stamp; black pen

This is how I made the layout:
1) Stamp multiple flowers – stamp some of the solid flower in a mix of the two Versamagic inks and some in Perfect Plumeria. Stamp the open flower onto Eva patterned paper. Stamp leafy frond onto green card. Cut out.
2) Add glitter glue to brads and when dry place in the solid flower centres. Add seed beads to the centre of the open flowers.
3) Cut a piece of purple paper and stamp all around with a swirl (Butterflies & Swirls) in Plum ink.
4) Doodle all around the edge of a sheet of white card with a black pen. In places, stamp the tiny flower stamp in Perfect Plumeria.

5) Stamp and layer a butterfly and decorate with glitter glue.
6) Assemble all the bits and bobs as shown, adding a title made from stamped Teen Tiny letters and chipboard letters.

I am also trying to get into the habit of using up my scraps, so when I had finished the layout I used the leftovers to make some cards and a tag. I originally had more flowers on the layout (I took them off as it looked too busy) so I had some blooms left to play with. I also originally cut the circle at the top from a different paper but decided I didn’t like it. So these items are just made from those discarded pieces - they are really simple but better than throwing those scraps in a drawer never to see the light of day again!

Your next stop on the hop is Nat - enjoy!