Watercolour Flowers

After watching Shari's video yesterday with her watercolour snowflakes, I had chance to make one more card for this months Hero Arts Challenge and was inspired to use her technique.
I have used Distress inks spritzed with water on the Sweet Threads flower, the end result reminds me of fireworks exploding in the sky, perfect for a celebration card.
Looking forward to tomorrow to find out what the challenge for July is! 

CAS Friday challenge #8

Another quick post today, just wanted to add my card for this weeks CAS-ual Friday challenge, this week its " Getting Edgy"

This week we are Getting Edgy! Use your border punches, rip some cardstock, whatever your pleasure to add a fun edge to your Clean And Simple project!

Not a great photo of my card, but here it is and I am now quite enjoying the challenge of making Clean and Simple cards.  The words are from Hero Arts Dictionary Greetings set and I have embossed them in gold, next just added a black punched border with added red ribbon and red pearls.

The sun has been shining here today so we have been trying to clean the tents up after a very muddy time at Glastonbury.  Luckily the sun did come out for them in the end and they both had a fantastic time!

Win some Hero Arts Stamps.

No cards today I am afraid, hopefully I will post tomorrow as I have a day off work, I just wanted to let you know that there are Hero Arts stamps up for grabs over at The Lily Pad Blog here .

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“I became a Member of Lily Pad Cards today! Go become a member for a chance to win a collection of Hero Arts stamps. Contest closes at 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, July 15!”

Wedding Card

Its an absolutely beautiful day here in Surrey ( about time after all the rain we have been having) and before I go into the garden I wanted to post this card that I have made for the current Hero Arts challenge which is Weddings and Congratulation cards.
For the heart I stamped Floral Brocade with Tea Dye distress ink then I cut the heart shape and added the dots of liquid pearls. Next I have embossed three times with thick embossing powder. The background is made with the Musical Collage Background stamp and Old Paper distress ink.

Hope its a lovely day where you are.

Tiffany Doodles new releases!!

There are two new releases over at the Tiffany Doodles blog today and I have used the Flower Vase image to make two cards.  For the first card I have made a reverse mask of the flower and vase and then stamped the vase with the Lace Background stamp from Hero Arts.  I love Blue and White patterned china and have used this inspiration on my vase.  I have also  masked the flower and Vase as well so that I could stamp the background with the Envelope patterned stamp.The flower has been cut out coloured with copics and then pop dotted to the image. The patterned background paper is from Basic Grey.

For my  second card I have  used  the same masking technique but have printed three images. This time my flowers are coloured with distress inks used as watercolours.

Looking forward to better weather this weekend and more time in the garden, hope you have a great weekend.

Lucy's Lovely Lines challenge 2

 Lucy Abrams has set her second sketch challenge over at the Lily Pad Blog and although I am not a lover of sketch challenges I decided to have a go. ( I always find them a bit daunting and much prefer colour challenges.)

I really love this Flower and Vase digital image from Tiffany Doodles  and knew it would work perfectly if I added another flower image to the vase,  I just copied and pasted the complete image and then reversed it to get the second flower.  I have coloured with copics and highlighted with an Inkssentials Gel pen.

Hope you are enjoying your week, I am hoping the weather is going to improve this weekend as both my son and daughter are going to the Glastonbury Music Festival.  They have both been a few times before and agree that its much more fun camping if its dry.  A couple of years ago Francesca went and it rained hard the whole weekend the mud was so deep in places that it actually went over the top of her wellington boots. It doesn't sound like much fun to me :0(

Two more challenges!!

The challenge over at the Play Date Cafe this week is to use these three fabulous summery colours

Hollyhock...Sky Blue...Orange

I couldn't resist having a go at this and I needed to make a congratulations on passing your Driving test for a friends daughter, what better than to use the cute beetle car image from Hero Arts and make three fun, bright cars!  This was a really quick card to make the only thing was waiting for the Glossy Accents to dry on the windows.  I also got to use up some ribbon scraps from my basket.

This card also fits the current challenge at the Hero Arts Blog, which is "Wedding and Congratulation cards"

I have made another card for the Hero Arts challenge after being inspired by Jacqueline  she has made some amazing cards using the Simple Frame stamp from Hero Arts and after seeing them I immediately added it to my wish list.

 I was lucky enough to find the stamp in a sale at The Glitter Pot, one of my favourite online craft stores, fantastic service, I ordered it on Wednesday evening and it arrived Friday.  I have stamped the frame onto some patterned paper from Prima and then cut it out, I masked the edges and then stamped Hydrangea with distress ink in the frame.  Next I added a mask to the flower and stamped very lightly with the Old Letter stamp.

A few weeks ago I decided to spoil myself and buy a food mixer,  I just thought you would like to see one of my first bakes using it.  My Husbands favourite Raspberry Pavlova.  I am so pleased with the result that theres no stopping me now, I am trying lots of new recipes for cakes and desserts.  My family's only complaint is that they are worried they are going to put on weight!!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

CAS Friday Colour Block Challenge

I have found over the past few weeks that I quite enjoy making CAS cards they pose a different sort of challenge for me, I have to hold back from adding too much detail!!

This week challenge over at the CAS-ual Friday blog is "Colour Blocking"

"This week we are Color Blocking: place blocks, or areas of color, next to each other to form a cohesive design on your Clean And Simple creation"

I really enjoyed making this card and ended up making two,  the background is made by inking my acrylic block with distress ink and then spritzing with perfect pearls before stamping onto my card,  the pearls give the background a lovely shimmer.

The single Real Dill flower is from the Hero Arts set called Real Garden Petals, I love this set!

We are having real April showers this week in June, every time I try to weed the garden the heavens open, hopefully the forecast is better for tomorrow.  Hope you are having a better day!.

Kaboodle Doodle Challenge

Another quick card using another image from Tiffany Doodles.  This is the first time I have entered the challenge over at The Kaboodle Doodle blog but seeing that Tiffany is sponsoring it this week I thought I would have a go.

This sweet image is called "flower and vase" and its such a great one to colour.  I have used copics again and then highlighted with my white Inkssentials gel pen.  The image has been masked so that I could stamp the background with the Her Arts Envelope pattern stamp.  For this I have used Old Paper distress ink and have spritzed with perfect pearls to give a lovely shimmer.

Sorry another quick post for me, I will visit a few more blogs tonight!!  Sorry I have been so bad lately!!

CAS "Tic Tac Toe " challenge

It seems ages since I have had time to do a blog post,  I have been really busy at work and not felt like blogging when I arrived home.  I have found  time to have a go at this weeks CAS challenge which is a fun "Tic Tac Toe" idea. My choice is Flowers, Dies and Gems.

I found this fun image over at "Tiffany Doodles" called Daisy and felt it was perfect for a CAS card.  I printed the image twice onto good quality cardstock and die cut, then water coloured the images with distress inks.  I cut out the flower head of one image and pop dotted it to the other.  

The background paper is from BasicGrey.

Hope you are having a fun week, I hope to find time to visit a few blogs soon!!

New Releases over at Tiffany Doodles!!!

Today is release day over at Tiffany Doodles and the lovely Tiff has produced two fabulous masculine images just in time for Fathers Day! The first is a fun fishing set at the second a great golf inspired set.

I decided to go with the golf images and have made two cards, one coloured with Copics and the second paper pieced.

 This is such a fun little golf buggy and so easy to colour, after printing twice I then made a mask of the buggy and stamped the background using the Clouds stamp from Hero Arts.  The background has been dry embossed and the ball is cut with a circle die cut, shaded with copics and also embossed.

 The second has been paper pieced and then layered up on pop dots for added dimension

Pop over to the Tiffany Doodles blog for lots more fabulous inspiration on using these fun Digital images!!!

Wow I am on Tiffany's DT!!!

I am really excited to announce that Tiffany has asked me to join the Tiffany Doodles Design Team and I am thrilled, Tiffany's digital images are not only her own original drawings, she also creates fabulous digi's based on her beautiful nature photography. The joy of using digital images is that you can re size and manipulate them to suit your own cards designs.  I have to admit that I am fairly new to using digital images but I really enjoyed learning a new technique and am looking forward to experimenting over the next few months.

It's June 7th and that means it's the start of a new challenge at Tiffany Doodles and this month's theme is "Steppin' Into Summer", I have made two cards for the challenge.  The first uses this Flip Flop image, I love flip flops and have a few pairs, I am sure that if I lived in a hotter climate I would live in them and have lots of bright, beautiful pairs preferably with lots of bling!
For this card I have reversed the center image and then just paper pieced adding some gems and the button and twine.

This second card uses the Dancing Dress digi, it is also paper pieced I have actually cut two dress skirts and layered one over the other to give more depth.



This card is more suited to a British summer (that's if it doesn't rain!!!) the height of chic would be going to a Garden Party in a pretty flowing summer dress!! ( Well I can dream)LOL!

I hope you get chance to join in the challenge!

Have a great week!



Weddings!!

This months theme over on the Hero Arts Blog is Weddings and Congratulations and the featured technique is Water colouring. This is a card I made for the wedding theme.  The flower is stamped onto vellum and then embossed in gold then I have coated it with Rock Candy Crackle paint it has created this lovely shimmery silky effect. The background is my old favourite Classic Fabric design stamped with Old Paper Distress ink I have then added the Envelope pattern round the edges and distressed slightly.
The ribbon and lace have been stitched together and the sentiment is pop dotted to the card for dimension.

Its turned into a wet miserable day here today although I musn't complain the garden definately needs the rain.



Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps CL488 Congrats. CG245 Classic Fabric. CG134 Large Flower. CL360 Best Wishes. S5507 Envelope Pattern.  Old Paper Distress Ink. Rock Candy crackle paint. Ribbon lace and pearls.

More Digital Fun!!

 It release day over at the Tiffanys Doodles Blog and when I saw this image called "Succulent" I thought I would try out my digital skills again, after all "practice makes perfect!"  The great thing about digital images is that you can re-size them.  With the top card I have cut out various sizes of the flowers and coloured them with copics and a white Inkssentials pen for the highlights. The background is a Lacy circle spellbinders die cut and its stamped with the Hero Arts Happy Definition stamp and distressed.

With the second card the background is again a Hero Arts Stamp, Music Background, stamped onto cream cardstock and distressed.

Have a great weekend!

Lily Pad Digital Challenge2

 The Lily Pad has set another digital challenge, this time sponsored by Hero Arts with Shari Carroll being the  guest designer.  They supply you with a free digital die cut to use on your card, unfortunately I don't own a digital die cutting machine so have had to cut everything by hand.
I have used the camera image and the film strip image, with some Hero Arts digital butterflies. I have coloured the butterflies with copic markers, the background paper is by prima.  To give the camera extra dimension I have added some glossy accents.

I also found time to have a play at water colouring with distress inks as shown by Shari here, this months challenge over at the Hero Arts blog is Wedding and Congratulation cards and the featured technique is water colouring.  This card is very tall and thin, I found them at my local Craft store and thought they would be fun for a change.  Sorry about the photograph I have found it hard to get a good shot of this card, so have had to take it outside and it seems to blend into the background a bit.

Hope you are having a good week.