SNG - Clowning around ...

.... Good morning all!  I've a very clean, simple card to share with you today.  It's my turn to post a project at Sparkle and Glitter where Rick's EDT share work using his digital art.  I took my inspiration from the French Clown image I've used as well as a couple of challenges.  Over at Less is More - LIM#221 it's recipe week and the team would like us to add a tag to our project, and at Addicted to CAS - ATCAS#62 they have cue words of Black, White and Gold.

Stamps: Rick St Dennis Digi - French Clown 2012; Dylusions - Clearly The Right Words; Kaisercraft - On Stage
Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Encore - Gold
Dies: Lil Inkers - Stitched Tags #3
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up! Card - Black; Wink of Stella - Clear, Gold; Gold Mirri Card; Ribbons

I printed this perriot type clown on white paper and decided to keep it really simple.  You can find this image at Rick's Zibbet store, where he has a huge collection of clowns.  I added gold to his patterned sleeve, sock, a shoe, the roses and trims, and I used a gold Wink of Stella.  I covered the rest of his costume with a clear Wink of Stella brush - the image really shimmers.  I added a tiny touch of red to his lips (I hope the ATCAS team don't mind).  I die cut a black tag with a faux stitched border and edged the tag hole with some gold card.  I adhered the image flat to the tag and added some black, gold and white ribbons.  I attached the tag to the card with dimensional tape.  I finished the front with a simple, but fun sentiment stamped in gold and black.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of black card and stamped some musical notes on the white card.

You can't see the sparkle and shimmer that you get with Wink of Stella brushes (and I think they are my favourite embellishment) in photos that are in focus.  So I've taken a close-up of the clown showing just how much he sparkles:

I love this effect - and what's even better is that the sparkle don't fall off and end up all over the floor, on my hands and face or even in the food!!  I'm still finding bits of the frantage that I used earlier this week all over the house!!   After I made the card I realised that it was looking a bit bland, so I added a simple hand drawn border that you see above - this is what it was before:

That's all for now.  See you soon.

TMR - Birds ...

....  Good morning!!  It's time for our new challenge at The Male Room, where we aim to provide inspiration in making cards, 3D projects or scrapbook pages for the men in our lives.  For the next couple of weeks we want you to feature BIRDS on your projects, here's my take:

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Great Big Owl
Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black
Dies: WMS - Big Owl; Die-namics - Celebratory Greetings
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up! Card - Basic Black; Gold Mirri Card; Copic Markers; Wink of Stella - Clear and Gold; SUEF - Arrows

I've told you many times that owls are my favourite birds - I love the character in their faces, so I had to use an owl on my project.  The inspiration for the colours comes from this week's Muse Challenge - MUSE#115 and Chrissie's fabulous card.  I picked this wonderful owl from Waltzingmouse Stamps and stamped him on white card.  I coloured him with Copic markers and added sparkle all over with Wink of Stella brushes in gold and clear.  I cut him out with the matching die.  I cut a panel of black card and embossed it to give some texture to the background.  I cut a branch and greeting from gold mirri card.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of black card and on the white panel stamped a few of the coordinating circles stamps, and left space for a message.

I took a couple of close-up photos of the owl's head showing the subtle sparkle that you get with the Wink of Stella brushes.  The first one was taken in bright sunshine and the sparkle is just amazing, but even under artificial light (second photo) you can just about see the shimmer!

Do drop by the blog and check out the inspiration pieces from the rest of the team and have fun!  You can have cute birds, funny birds, realistic birds, just remember that your project must have a masculine feel.  You've got plenty of time to play along with us, submission deadline is Tuesday 12th May at midnight (7.00pm EDT).  See you soon.

ASM - Make Your Mark .....

....  Good evening everyone!  It's time for our Make Your Mark challenge over at Addicted to Stamps and More!  So long as you make a mark - pencils, inks, paints, stencils, copics, etc - then just about anything goes.  I had lots of fun with my card:

Stamps: A Day for Daisies Digi - Spring Flower Hair; Penny Black - Demure
Inks: Encore - Gold; Versamark
Dies: Spellbinders - Fleur de Lis Squares (S4-138) #4
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Gold Mirri Card; Copic Markers; Wink of Stella - Clear; Stampendous - Frantage Gold Lux; Gold Embossing Powder

Our sponsor this week is A Day for Daisies and the winner of the challenge will get a gift certificate for $12.  I had such fun picking the image to use this week, this one is so pretty and a joy to colour.  The colours were inspired by the photo from this week's Just Us Girls Challenge - JUGS#290.  I printed her on white card, coloured her with Copic markers and added some sparkle to her flowers.  I rubbed some Versamark around the edges of the image and embossed with gold powder. I then added some matte medium adhesive and poured on some Stampendous Gold Lux Frantage - full of glitter and mica flakes.  I die cut an ornate gold frame and adhered that behind the image.  I finished the front with a simple birthday sentiment.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of gold mirri card and on the white panel I stamped, in gold, some flowers.

Do visit our blog to see what the rest of the team have made for inspiration.  Have fun!

Card in a box ....

....  One of my recent craft classes was how to make a Card in a Box, run by Valerie Brincheck at Stampeddler Plus.  I've seen these cards on the Internet, but not had great success making them.  So it was great to have a class that actually made it seem easy.  I decided that I'd take the opportunity to make a few cards at the class - none of them, however, were finished when I left.  But that changed this week when I saw the challenge at Colour Throwdown - CTD#339.  The colours they picked matched one of my cards and here's the completed card in a box:

Dies: Memory Box - Busy as a Bee
Accessories:  Kaisercraft DP - Shine Bright; Bazzill Card - Black; Stampin' Up! Card - Crushed Curry; SU Punches - Circles - ½", ¾", 1", 1¼", What's Up?

Valerie gave us all a sheet with the dimensions of where to cut and where to fold on the card base.  She showed us the best way to glue the card together - we got some really good tips.  And then we were able to go wild with our choice of design papers. I've got a large huge collection of design paper packs in my stash, so I picked three different packs to take to class with me.  I wanted to make one that would be suitable to send to my son, Ben.  I think the bold colours and graphic designs from this set are just right.

I die cut some honeycomb strips from yellow card to go on the back layer and added a sentiment to the top.  The middle layer was made by punching out a number of different sentiment and patterns and adhering them together and attaching to some clear plastic film - to look like they just in the air!  I finished the front with an arrow to point at one sentiment, a hello and a smile sentiment - all made from the design papers.    Here are some more views of the card:

I really like that the card folds flat and will go in a standard envelope.

I was out at a photo shoot yesterday with a really fun model - Madison.  I took so, so many photos of her - over 1,000!!!  Digital photography makes it so easy to take far too many photos.  I edited a few photos this morning - most behind the scenes stuff and a few goofy ones - Madison is fond of dinosaurs.   Here's the Flickr link if you want to see them all:

That's all for now.  I'm off to watch the rest of the Chelsea v Arsenal match, at the time of writing it's half-time and the score is 0 - 0, so it's all to play for - go Chelsea!!!  See you soon.

52CCT - Technique Take 2 ...

....  Hello and good morning!  I made a boo-boo yesterday and my post for this week's 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown challenge went up early - silly me!!!!  So, those of you who've seen the post have a head start on the challenge.  I decided that I had to make another card - Louise has given us the challenge of using the Triple Stamping technique, and this is my Take Two card:

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Warm Fuzzies, Flurries, Tis The Season
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Lost Lagoon, Night of Navy, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo; Versafine - Onyx Black; Memento - Tuxedo Black, Grey Flannel
Dies: Spellbinders - Ovals Lg (S4-110) #3 and #5, Ovals Sm (S4-112) #3 and #5
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Lost Lagoon, Night of Navy, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo; Copic Markers; Wink of Stella - Clear

This card is quite different from the one that went up yesterday.  I've used the colours from this week's Colour Me Card Challenge - CMCC#68 - totally non-traditional and the layout is based on the sketch over at Jingle Belles - JB:15:09.  I'm not sure whether this works with the Triple Stamp technique, but I had fun.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of yellow card and on the white panel stamped the larger robin and a Christmas greeting.

Don't forget to visit our blog and check out the cards the rest of the team have made to share with you.  That's all for now - have fun!!

USC - Things With Wings ...

.... Hi, good morning.  I'm here with a reminder that there's still plenty of time to play along with the  current Uniko Studio Challenge which has the theme of

THINGS WITH WINGS

This card is really clean and simple and features lots of pretty butterflies:

Stamps: Uniko Studio - Bright Butterflies, Simply Said Birthday
Inks: Kaleidacolour - Blue Breeze
Dies: Uniko Studio - Bright Butterflies
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stickles - Crystal; Wink of Stella - Clear; Stampin' Up! Card - Tempting Turquoise

The idea for this card came from a few challenges:

• Make It Monday - MIM#209 to make white on white die cuts with a pop of colour card
• CASology - CAS#143 where the cue word is OMBRE
• Less is More - LIM#220 where the theme is Up, Up and Away

I die cut several butterflies from white card.  I glued some of the die cuts together to make them thicker.  I kept one of the die cut butterflies as a single layer and stamped the image with ombre ink.  I added sparkle to the white butterflies with a clear Winko of Stella brush and adhered them to the card.  I stamped the sentiment and little flowers with ombre blue inks.  I added a touch of sparkle to the stamped butterfly and flowers with some crystal Stickles.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of turquoise card and decorated the white panel with a sentiment, more butterflies and some flowers.

Here's a close up of the sparkle on the plain white die cut butterflies - when the sun shines, they really shimmer.

Do visit the blog to check out the inspiration cards from the rest of the team.

I forgot to mention in my last post about the challenge that we have prizes for playing along.  The challenge winner will get a £20 Gift Voucher for the Uniko Studio shop and also be invited to join us as Guest Designer.  The Top 3 will each get a £5 gift voucher.  And, if you've used a Uniko Studio stamp you'll go into the random draw and the winner of that gets a £10 gift voucher for the shop.  You've got until Friday 1st May 8.00am BST (3.00am EDT) to join us.  Have fun!!

52CCT - Technique ....

....Morning!!!  We've reached the last Saturday of the month and Louise has come to the end of her term hosting the challenges at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, and she's got a fun technique challenge for us; Triple Stamping.  If you're not sure what this means, check out this video or this one.  Here's my card:

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Festive Foliage, Twas the Night before Christmas
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up! Card - Basic Black; SU Markers - Early Espresso, Lucky Limeade, Bermuda Bay, Crumb Cake

I used the colours from this week's Colour Q - cQc#288 for the card - I think they give a contemporary look.  I really like this technique, it always looks very impressive and it's actually very easy to do.  For this card I cut two small squares 2" × 2" and a longer rectangle 2" × 3½".  I used temporary adhesive to attach the panels to the card front.  I started with the sentiment in the sentiment and then inked up the branch and pine cone stamps with marker pens.  I finished the front by stamping a few festive berries too.  Once stamped, I took the panels off the card and layered them on black card each panel is an eighth of an inch larger than the white panel.  Then I adhered the panels to the card.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of black card and stamped a simple sentiment and another branch on the white card.

The rest of the team have created some fabulous inspiration cards to share with you, so do drop by the blog and check them out.  You've got plenty of time to play along - submission deadline is Friday 1st May midnight BST (7.00pm EDT).  Have fun!