Kid's birthday ....

... Morning.  I've made this card using three challenges:

• CAS(E) this Sketch - CTS49
• ABC Challenges - ABC48 - to make a card for a child
• Colour My Heart: CMH63

Stamps: Sweet Stamp Shop - Admit One
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black
Accessories:  Stampin' Up! DP - Real Red, Pacific Point, Night of Navy; White Lustre Card; Cuttlebug EF - Happy Birthday; White Gel Pen

This is not a large card being only 3½" × 5", but I think it's perfect for a little boy who will be 5 years old next week.  As soon as I saw this week's sketch those speech bubbles reminded me of balloons - the rest was easy.  I cut a mat panel in red and on the white panel I stamped the elephant and balloons, then I ran it through my Big Shot and embossed the birthday greetings.  I stamped the balloons onto some dotty design paper, cut them out and attached them with pop dots.  I also cut out the little elephant, added a gem for his eye and popped him on the front too.  The inside is simply a mat of red design paper with a panel of white on which I stamped the circus tent.

Kathryn will be home from school shortly - they're having a half day.  It's a lovely day here in Northville, so I think we're going to spend some girly time together.  That's all for now. See you soon.

Happy Birthday wishes to ....

... our darling daughter Kathryn.  Twelve years ago today our gorgeous girl arrived; she has given us so much - love, laughter and fun.  This is Kathryn's birthday card:

Stamps: Sweet Stamp Shop - Zombies, Dia De Los Muertos; Cas-ual Friday Stamps - Countdown, Stop; My Favourite Things - Birthday Sentiments
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Daffodil Delight, Bermuda Bay, Primrose Petals, Rich Razzleberry; Versafine - Onyx Black; Versamark
Accessories: SU Card - Primrose Petals; SU DP - Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight; White Lustre Card; Scraps from bin - turquoise, white glitter paper; Promarkers - Yellow, Maroon, Antique Pink, Turquoise; Clear embossing powder

I know that Zombies are not the normal decoration for a birthday card, but when Kathryn saw this set she told me that she wanted her birthday card to use this set!!!  Did I mention that my daughter is very strange?  No!  Well, she is and we just love her.

I used the sketch from the current Clean & Simple Stamping - FTL258 challenge for the layout.  The colours are from last week's Colour Q - cQc206 challenge, the colours are so bright and vibrant - perfect for a bold, fun birthday card.

I stamped the Zombie girl's face onto vellum using Versafine, heat embossed with clear powder, cut it out and then coloured the reverse of the image using Promarkers (matched as closely as possible to the SU colours).  Once dry I ran the image through my Xyron to make it self-adhesive.  I stamped the large rose on to some SU design paper and a bit of turquoise scrap and the smaller solid rose on to SU card and heat embossed with clear powder, and then in Primrose Petals on white glitter paper.  I stamped the birthday sentiment on the card - first with a second generation impression and then again with fresh ink.  Then I stamped a couple of pretty borders above.  I attached the roses and then added the Zombie Girl.  For the inside I cut a mat in Primrose Petals and on the white panel I stamped another zombie as well as some roses.  I finished with a bold sentiment which I stamped first in yellow then in black - giving a drop shadow effect.

To complete the look - I also decorated the envelope with the left over bits - the zombie boy and some cute little feathers - all printed on vellum and coloured with Promarkers.

I have to admit that it took me ages to make this card.  I was determined to use the zombie girl image - as Kathryn has specifically asked for it, but my first couple of attempts ended up in the bin!  They were looking more like Halloween cards, but I think this one works.   Here are a couple of pictures of my gorgeous girl:

2003 - In the back garden

2005 - Christmas - Kathryn as Cinderella

 2009 - Kathryn in Benidorm

2011 - Our first visit to Michigan 

2013 - End of August - Kathryn with green hair!!!

If you made it this fair - thanks for reading.  I think you have realised that I'm a very proud Mum ;))  Have a great day - see you tomorrow.

Colour wheels ...

.... Morning all!  You know when you have a "brilliant" idea and then when you do it, you find it wasn't quite such a good idea - well, my card today is a perfect example!!!  I used the following challenges to make it:

• Sweet Stamp Shop Use What You Have - UWYH#12
• CAS-ual Fridays - CFC111 - to use a button(s)
• Clean & Simple Challenge - FTL252

Stamps: Sweet Stamp Shop - Colour Wheel; The Stamps of Life - Words4crayons
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: Spellbinders - Circles Lg (S4-114) #5, On the Edge (S5-168)
Accessories:  Various designs papers and card scraps (too many to mention); White Lustre Card; SU Marker Pens - Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Garden Green, Pacific Point; Hessian Ribbon

So what was my brilliant idea?  Part of the UWYH challenge is to work on the stash you have and I have a large vast collection of paper and card scraps.  And, as I like to paper piece and I thought it would be a great way to use up some of this stash.  I obviously didn't think it through very well, as it took me ages to stamp and piece the colour wheel!!! While I'm delighted with how it turned out - I'm not sure I'll be doing it again soon :)  Here's a close up of the colour wheel showing the different papers and card I used, and you can see the tiny button too - matched to the scalloped trims.

Here are a few photos of some of my paper stash - I really must use it more often, but on a less time consuming project :)

As I type this post - I'm listening to Richard Thompson's 1000 Years of Popular Music on Spotify - such a good album and really puts you in a great mood for the day!  Here's a link to a quick review of some of the songs on the album:



That's all for now - have a great day!

Start spreading the news ....

.... I'll bet you're all humming the song now!!! I know I am!  My card today has been made for three challenges:

• CAS(E) this Sketch! - CTS#39 - layout
• CAS Colours & Sketches - CASC&S36 - colours
• Sweet Stamp Shop Use What You Have - UWYH#11

Stamps: Sweet Stamp Shop - Cityscape, Dia De Los Muertos, Let's Chat
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Melon Mambo, Old Olive, Basic Grey
Dies: Spellbinders - Crown Circles (S4-302) #3, Circles Lg (S4-114) #4, Circles Sm (S4-116) #4
Accessories: SU Card - Basic Grey; SU DP - Old Olive; White Lustre Card; SU - 1" Circle punch

I was looking through my stash of Sweet Stamp Shops sets and saw the phone dial and cable - they sort of reminded me of a flower - so that's what I played with.  I stamped the phone dial twice onto white card and used my Spellbinder dies to cut out the circles.  I used my 1" SU circle punch to cut out the centre of the pink dial.  I then die cut the crown circle and adhered the phone dial on top.  I made the card base from Basic Grey card. I cut a panel of white card to fit and scored a border all the way round.  I stamped the phone cable directly onto the card and then adhered the phone flower.  I finished off with the scroll sentiment.  For the inside I cut another panel of white card and stamped a tick box greeting!!  A fun card for my stash.

My stash of SSS sets remains the same - and I still have lots of ideas - they are fun!

Hope you're all having a good day.  I've had a busy morning, lots of jobs to do before our holiday!!  So pleased that I managed to get an hour in my craft room this afternoon.  See you soon.

One for four ....

... Good afternoon from a somewhat dull, grey and rather humid Northville! Not easy to take photos when it's like this, so please excuse the photo!  I've made a card and managed to use four challenges to make it, and they are:

• The Male Room - TMR1 - Anything Goes
• Sweet Stamp Shop Use What You Have - UWYH11
• Colour Throwdown - CTD253
• Muse - MUSE28

Stamps: Sweet Stamp Shop - Chemistry
Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black
Dies: Lil' Inkers - Instant Camera Die
Accessories: Stampin' Up Card - Smokey Grey; Promarkers - Cyan, Sunflower, Pumpkin, Cool Grey 1 & 3; White Lustre Card

The Male Room is a new challenge that launched today and, as the name says, focuses on projects for Men/Boys.  I know that lots of people aren't too keen on guy cards, but I really enjoy making them, so I had to play along with their inaugural challenge - it's an easy one too - as Anything Goes!!!  I've also managed to play along with Muse this week - just love Lynn Mangan's inspiration card and have used the layout for my card.  This week's Colour Throwdown challenge are bold and bright and I think perfect for a guy card.  Finally, I'm submitting this to the Sweet Stamp Shop challenge to "Use What you Have".  I've have a super stash of SSS stamps and I've had the chemistry set for a while (I'm a science nerd) and haven't inked it up before, so that's the one I'm using!  I'm trying to build a stash of cards to send to Ben - I try to send one a week - and I think he'll like this theme!

I cut the Camera die twice - once in grey and one in white.  I stamped the flask image directly onto the white panel, used the second impression and then coloured it with Promarkers.  I stamped the chemical symbols onto another scrap of card and cut them out and adhered them over the flask.  I stamped the bulb onto some more scrap, coloured with Promarkers and adhered it to the card with dimensional tape.  I love the fun sentiment - Ben might think it means him :))  Here's a photo of my SSS stash - got lots of ideas for the new ones!

Well, I think that's all for today.  I've off to get dinner ready.  Kathryn is having a friend over for a sleepover tonight - she's so excited!!

Shades of love ....

... Hello everyone - I've got a really busy day lined up today.  I'm off to the Great Lakes Mega Meet at the Suburban Showcase in Novi.  I found this show by accident last year, but this year I found it deliberately!!  I've signed up for a couple of classes about colouring with Copics and a class about Zentangles.  I've been fascinated by Zentangles and I've seen some beautiful ones drawn by Susan G and Paula P - and I'm finally going to have a go myself.

In the meantime, here's a card I made for a couple of challenges:

• Less is More - LIM118 
• Retro Sketches - RS62

Stamps: Sweet Stamp Shop - Colour Wheel
Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Copics - Y0000, Y00, Y13, Y18, V0000, V20, V22, V25; White twine

First of all - this is card does not have a violet border - that's just the mat it was on when I took the photo!  I decided to have another go at the Less is More challenge and this time I picked violet and yellow.  I thought I'd play with the colour wheel as I have this super stamp.  I stamped it in memento ink and coloured the two wedges with my Copics.  Next I cut a small panel of white card and layered the colours from each end to meet in the middle with the palest of each - the colours are not as fluorescent as they appear in this photo - I'll post a new picture tomorrow!  I stamped the sentiment onto a smaller bit of card and attached it to the main panel and finished by wrapping some white twine around the panel.  I attached the panel with dimensional tape.  A clean, simple and reasonably quick card to make.  It was lots of fun.

That's all for now - I'm off out now - should be so much fun.  Interesting classes, lots of stalls with so many goodies - but I'm not coming back with anything new ;)))))  See you!

Are we there yet? ....

.... Hi - back again!!  I'm sure that if you've got children that phrase "are we there yet?" will be so familiar!!  This card has been made with a couple of challenges in mind:

• CASology - CAS39
• Colour Throwdown - CTD327

Stamps: Sweet Stamp Shop - Across the Miles; Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz - Travel Blueprints
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Night of Navy, Poppy Parade, Crumb Cake; Versamark
Accessories: SU Card - Crumb Cake, Night of Navy; SU Markers - Real Red; Promarkers - Poppy, Baby Pink, Soft Green; White Lustre Card; Clear embossing powder

I got these fabulous blueprint style stamps a few weeks ago and this is the first time they've seen ink!!  I really like the aeroplane blueprint image and thought it would be perfect for the travel theme at CASology.  I started by cutting a mat layer in Crumb Cake and stamping the image directly on the card.  Then I stamped the image again on Night of Navy card - I used Versamark, embossed with clear powder and cut out the plane.  I stamped the image again onto white card and cut out the stamp part of the image.  I used Promarkers to colour the number and stripes.  I finished the front with that phrase we all know so well and a compass, spotlighting the N for north.

For the inside I made a mat layer in Crumb Cake and a white layer onto which I stamped a map of the United States and used the little arrow and "I'm here" phrase to mark where I live in Michigan.

That's all for today.  We have a busy afternoon lined up - Jonathan is out at at shoot in Pontiac, and Kathryn and I are joining a photography group to do a walk around Historic Northville.  I'll take lots of  photos and share them during the week.  See you tomorrow.

More and more ...

.... Morning all - it's very wet here this morning.  We were woken by the rain hammering down on the roof this morning and we've been promised rain for the next three days!  Heyho!!  That's the way it goes.

I have a card to share with you this morning - at last I seem to be getting back into my groove!  I've used a few challenges to make it:

• CAS-ual Fridays - CFC97 to use chevrons and flowers on the card
• Dynamic Duos - DD#47 - love these colours
• Clean & Simple Stamping - FTL235

Stamps: CAS-ual Fridays Stamps - Only You, Beanstalks; Sweet Stamp Shop - Distressed Chevrons
Inks: Versamark; Memento - Tuxedo Black; Stampin' Up! - Cherry Cobbler
Accessories: SU Card - Pool Party, Cherry Cobbler; SU Markers - Pool Party, Cherry Cobbler; Clear and Black embossing powder; White Lustre card; Glossy Accents

I was having trouble with the CAS-ual Friday and Dynamic Duo challenges, but last night I had an idea and I'm pleased that the card has turned out pretty much as I imagined.  I stamped the distressed chevrons in Versamark and embossed them with clear powder giving a lovely tone-on-tone pattern.  Stamping the flower and cutting it out was a bit tough!  I stamped the image in Versamark and embossed with black powder, than I ran it through my Xyron for two reasons; it made it self-adhesive and it strengthened it.  I coloured the image with SU markers and then carefully cut it out with my scalpel.  I layered the patterned panel onto some Pool Party and adhered it to the card.  I stamped the sentiment onto white card, cut it out and added the flag detail.  After attaching the flower to the card I applied Glossy Accents to the flower to give a little more definition.  For the inside I made a very simply mat in Cherry Cobbler and White card on which I stamped a sentiment.

In hindsight, I think I should have left a white border around the flower as it's a bit hard to see the flower head!  It's my wedding anniversary on 22nd April and this is for Jonathan.  I don't have to worry about him seeing it early - he doesn't often look at my blog!!  Well, he does if I make him :)

I've got a busy day lined up - but fortunately no gardening as it's raining :) :)  Oh joy!  See, there is a plus side to rain.  That's all for now - see you soon.