The holly and the ivy ....

... Chrissie and Mandi have come up with a fabulous challenge for this week's Less is More theme - LIM46.  They want us to use the theme of music - musical instruments, manuscripts or simply base your card on a song title.  I've done both!

In my stash I have some lovely stamps from Elusive Images that have only seen ink a few times, but they are perfect for this theme.  Some holly, some ivy - the carol is one of my favourites - The Holly and the Ivy.

I stamped the image onto plain paper and heat embossed with clear powder, this gives an image that's really easy to paint.  I used Label 8 to cut out the image and then painted the holly, ivy, berries and ribbon with Twinkling H2Os - they have a fabulous shimmer, which is actually visible in this picture!  To get the red mat I put the die I used to cut out the image onto some red mirri card, taped it in place and then used my scalpel to cut around the outside of the die - giving a mat that is just a bit bigger than the image.  I stamped the line of sheet music onto white card, embossed it and then layered it onto some more red mirri.  Finally, I added the sentiment - positioning it with my trusty stamp-a-ma-jig!

Stamps:  Elusive Images - The Holly and Ivy; Waltzingmouse - Musical Backgrounds
Inks:  Versafine - Onyx Black
Spellbinders:  Labels Eight (S5-019) #3
Accessories:  Twinkling H2Os; Clear embossing powder, Red mirri and card from stash

Jonathan's home!!!  Yippee!!!  Our journey to the airport was a bit hairy!  It was dry when we left the house, but it started to hail by the time we got to the M56 and visibility wasn't good.  I slowed down and kept my distance, but there were several accidents on the motorway.  At the airport I turned up at the wrong terminal - silly me.  To be fair, it was the right terminal when Kathryn and I arrived home two weeks ago, but KLM switched terminals last week - and I hadn't checked.  Our journey home wasn't much better - it was still hailing like mad and one of the accidents (on the other side) caused the motorway to be closed for several hours.  I don't know what caused the accident, but some people don't put on their headlights or slow down - and I don't understand that!

Jonathan's had a nap this afternoon, but he's got absolutely no idea what time of day it is :)  I know that feeling :)  Still, that's all for now - I'm off to watch the final of Strictly Come Dancing - I've got no idea who's going to win this year, but I'd sort of like Chelsea to win.  Kathryn wants Aliona (Matt) to win!!  See you all tomorrow.

CR84FN38 - take two ...

.... it's week two for our gorgeous colours - bright pink, black and grey (silver) - I think these are such feminine and glamorous colours.  We already have lots of lovely entries - and there's still plenty of time to join in with CR84FN38.

The photos are courtesy of Leslie at A Creative Mint.  Last week I didn't have any stamping on my card at all - I've got a little on this week's card.  But I really enjoyed playing with the fabulous Kanban card from my stash - that I decided to use it again this time.  I covered the base card with some gorgeous silver grey vellum.  I used my nesties to cut the gorgeous Fleur de Lis square and black mat.  The 3D flower was made by stamping the image three times, embossing with clear powder and then painting the images with Twinkling H2Os, cutting and layering.  I added some little grey pearls to the top layer of the flower.  In my Kanban stash, I have a set of very large sentiments - so I thought I'd use one on the card.  I finished off with another little flower - again made up from Kanban die cuts.  A card full of bling!!

Stamps: Funstamps - 3D Flower4 (FF70)
Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
Spellbinders: Fleur de Lis Squares (S4-318) #4; Standard Squares Lg (S4-126) #6
Accessories:  LLB - Vellum, Habico Pearls, Twinkling H2Os - Blushing Rose, Pewter; Clear embossing powder and card from stash

Our Guest Designer, Marie of Ink'd Wings, and some of the Design Team have also made cards to share with you - check them out!

Sue

Stephanie

Mona
 

That's all for today - I'm going to be very busy in the house - Kathryn is having her Birthday Party at home.  Lots of young "ladies" running around and having fun!  See you tomorrow!

Two more challenges ...

... I've been having lots of fun this afternoon, and I've made cards for two challenges.  The first card is for a new blog that I found the other day while browsing - by it's just the type of challenge I like.  The Blog is called For Your Inspiration - and new challenges are posted on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month, there aren't many specific rules - just create a project based on the inspiration photo posted using any medium you choose (ie: paper, sewing, jewelry, art, etc) - you can enter up to three times.  The challenge this week is based on this wonderful photograph:

We've been told that this building is a library - I don't know where it is or what's it's called, but it looks just wonderful in this photo.  I can imagine sitting reading, immersing myself in books and knowledge - joy!!!  And this is my interpretation of the photo:

In my scrap box I found this lovely blue vellum that looks a bit like the cloudy sky, so I cut it to fit just inside the card base.  The blocks of colour in the library window reminded - by some strange route - of a lovely flower stamp that I have in my box.  I've had it a long time, but I think this is only the second time it's seen ink!!  I stamped it four time and embossed each image with clear powder to give a nice raised edge.  I painted each image with Twinkling H2Os and then cut them out.  Initially I was going to layer them up and make a single flower, but I decided to make them individual flowers.  I cut out the vellum mat with my nesties and stamped the single word "Imagine" and embossed it.

Stamps:  Funstamps - 3D Flower 3 (FF69); Hero Arts - Letter I set
Inks:  Versafine - Onyx Black
Twinkling H2Os: Snap Dragon, Lemongrass, Autumn Skies, Dreamsicle
Spellbinders:  Fleur de Lis Squares (S4-318) die #4
Accessories:  Card, vellum and clear embossing powder from stash

My next card has been made for the Just Add Ink challenge - I've not played this one for a while - don't know why, just kept missing the deadline!!  This weeks challenge is also an inspiration photo - and it's just beautiful.

When I first saw this photo - I was going to make a card based on a window with flowers in a beautiful window box.  But that's not what I made. 

I found myself drawn to the lovely sky and sea and the shades of blue - so relaxing, so calming.  And I remembered a lovely sailing ship stamp that I got from Ebay - it's part of a discontinued Stampin' Up! set and I just love it.  I started off with a bit of nestie scrap that I have in my box - a lovely oval.  I attached it to my card and stamped the ship image through the space and put a mask over the image.  Next I added a couple of cloud masks (from my OLW61 card - I don't throw things out).  Then I stippled on a variety of blue inks, starting with the palest and building up the intensity around the ship.  After removing the various masks I added the sentiment and coloured the ship and flags.  Mu Mum loves this - and I'm quite pleased with it too! :)

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! - Discontinued set
Spellbinders:  Mega Classic Scalloped Ovals Lg (S5-024) die#4
Inks:  Memento - Tuxedo Black;  Distress - Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire
Accessories:  Card and pencils from stash

That's all for today - I've been making up for the last couple of days!!  Tonight is our last Scout meeting of the term.  We're doing some community work this evening by selling programmes at our local theatre - we started on Wednesday night and finish on Saturday.  The leaders and Scouts have each taken a night.  It's fun!!

See you tomorrow for two of my favourite challenges - Less Is More and Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge.  Bye for now!