A Birthday and the September CCC

I was asked to make a card for a friend at work, it is her sisters 50th birthday and she wanted a card that reflected her sisters character.  She is really a keen gardener and loves nothing more than spending a day in her wellies in the garden planting her vegetables and flowers.  This stamp seemed perfect for the job, I was lucky enough to win it in a recent Play Date Cafe challenge, its a set of stamps from Artistic Outpost and is called "Bloom and Grow".

The seed packets are stamped and  coloured with copics and distress inks.
Supplies: Artistic Outpost, "Bloom and Grow Stamps" Hero Arts stamps S4878 "Old letter writing, S5213 Dots and Flowers. Ranger distress inks, Bundled Sage, Spiced Marmalade, Tea Dye. Prima Flowers.

I was thrilled to receive this beautiful card today from Agata in Switzerland, every month the lovely Deborah organises a Card Chain Challenge, she gives us a colour scheme, a choice of themes, and a template to use to make our card. We sign up at the end of one month for the next month, and everyone sends someone else a card following the guidelines. We have participants from all over the world! If you'd like to get in on the fun, check Deborah's blog at the end of this month and sign up!

The distressing and shimmer to this card is stunning, she is definitely a master of distressing, check out her blog for a real treat. 

SallyX

Play Date Cafe #46

This is the colour inspirational photograph for the challenge at The Play Date Cafe this week  its colour splash week and the colours are:

'Color Splash' actually means 'black & white with a touch of color'.

What we ask of our color splash challenges

is that you literally stick to 'black & white with the

required splash of color' and this week, it's

pink, copper or gold"

As you can see I have chosen pink as my splash colour.  The outside white panel has been embossed with my new border folder.  I then stamped the Hero Arts Poppy Background onto black card and embossed with white. I cut with the oval nesties and glued on some pink seed beads to the flower head.

Just a quick post, back with more tomorrow!
Sallyx
supplies: hero Arts stamp CG140 Poppy background. Cuttlebug folder swirl border.

Wee Ones Challenge!!

Its proving to be a really busy week this week but I have just found time to make a quick card for challenge #21 over at Jenny's blog.  I do find it hard to do "cute" cards as I am really a flower and hearts type of girl but I  like to stretch myself a bit, after all that is what a challenge is all about!

I really love these Pure Innocence images from Heather Ellis and even though I don't often do cute they are great images for children's cards. I decided that an Autumn theme would be good as all the leaves are beginning to turn here and I love the Autumn colours.  I purchased this image   last year and as the little girl  has her gardening outfit on it was a perfect choice, I decided to cut off the watering can and have her wander through the leaves. (I love rustling through the leaves on a crisp Autumn day) .  I have coloured with copics and also added Glossy Accents to her wellies.
Hope you are having a good week, I am looking forward to the weekend!!
Sallyx

Manly challenge!!

Just a quick post today,  I need to post a card for the challenge at the Play Date Cafe.  After seeing the colour swatch chosen by Julie I thought I would try something different and make a mans card!!

I tried so hard to get a good photo but the weather is really dull and it doesn't show the true colours that I have used. The background card is dark orange and I have embossed it with the Wood Grain folder, the second layer is plum although it looks alot darker here.  I have had this stamp for years and I haven't inked it up in a long while but I need a birthday card for a fishing mad man.

I made a second image of the postage stamp section and coloured with water colours, then added crackle glaze to age it,  It is pop dotted to give a little dimension, I also added Glossy accents to the float image and some stickles to the reel and weights.
Sallyx

A rather large flower and a Blog Hop!!

If you saw yesterdays post you know I have been playing round with the flower making technique recommended by Heather, well this was my first attempt.  The glisten is achieved by spraying with perfect pearls in water.

The flower is rather large and I wasn't sure what to do with it, in the end I made a stem by twisting some ribbon onto double sided tape. The leaf and green side to the background is an off cut from my scrap basket.
I am never going to be able to post this card as its far to fat and would definitely get damaged so it will give me an excuse to hand deliver!!

Supplies: Hero Arts stamp CG187 Floral Brocade, CG139 Cling Dots.  Cuttlebug embossing folder, Wood Grain

I have also been playing with my new small clear set of stamps from Hero Arts called designer fruit.

The apple is paper pieced with some of my favourite Bo Bunny paper, the green card has been run through the wood grain embossing folder.  Another card for the Hero Arts September challenge of "Everything Autumnal" .  With all the lovely apples and blackberries around at the moment  I am going to make a crumble for Sunday lunch, Yummy my favourite!!

We are having our first ever  blog Hop at the Hero Arts Flickr group to show off our own style check out the link here and enjoy the Hop there are so many talented ladies in the group with lots of different styles.  Its a contant source of inspiration for me and I have to try and visit every day!!  When I first started making cards everyone was so kind and encouraging it certainly inspired me to try different techniques and styles.
Sallyx

Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps, CL320 Designer Fruit, CG119 Flourish Background. Papers by BoBunny and Basic Grey. Woodgrain embossing folder.

Envelope Gift Bag

I watched this tutorial by Lisa and decided to have a go at making a gift bag from a Kraft envelope, we don't really get many "Trick or Treaters" so made my bag for an adult. Its the perfect size for chocolates or small toiletry samples.

After seeing Heather's fabulous card and watching this tutorial that she recommended, on how to make these beautiful flowers I knew it would be the perfect finishing touch to my bag. I Love how the flower turned out so have made more, you will probably see them popping up from time to time!

This bag is for the current Hero Arts challenge which for this month is an Autumn theme and also gift bags, it also fits the challenge at Sir Stampalot which is "All Distressed".  Lots of distressing here, what did I ever do before Tim Holtz inks!! (I seem to remember using cold coffee and tea bags! to age paper).

Supplies: Hero Arts stamp CG187 Floral Brocade. Distress inks, Bundled Sage, Barn Door,

Well I have survived my first two days at work its always hard to get back in the swing of things after the summer holidays.  Hope you have a fun weekend.

Sallyx

Gift Card

I had a little bit of fun today trying out Kelly's masking technique from Mondays post at Hero Arts, I decided to make this little gift card that holds a Tea Bag, (perfect for a small gift for a friend). I masked the cup design and then stamped with  the Art, Life and Beauty stamp from Hero Arts.  The cup was then coloured with watercolour pencils and distressed with Dusty Concord.  I added a small amount of sparkly stickles for the steam.

Inside is one special tea bag from Fortnum and Mason.

I was really excited to receive this collecton of embellishments in the post today, it was a little giveaway I won on The Ribbon Girls blog.

I love ribbons and pretty buttons can't wait to use these!

 Summer is officially over for me today as I have to go back to work tomorrow after 5 weeks holiday, I am feeling a bit sad as there will be less time for crafting and less time for blogging,  these past weeks have gone by so quickly but its been a great holiday, lots of lovely weather and of course my trip to beautiful Italy!!
SallyX

In the Forest!

Jenny's challenge this week over at the Wee Memories blog is called "In the forest", this card is another that's out of my comfort zone I much prefer the flowery, pretty style, I find it hard to do cute.  Never mind I am up for a challenge and will have a go at anything!!

The only animal type stamp I have is the Hero Arts "Spot the Dog" and the Baby Deer but,  when I first started stamping the lovely Kathy sent me some images to practice with and this Owl was amongst them. Perfect for this challenge, I coloured him with copics then added some googly eyes, the background sky is embossed and then distressed with Tumbled Glass, around the moon I have also added Scattered Straw ink.  (What would we do without Distress Inks I use them on almost every card I make!! )
Hope you are having a good weekend.
Sallyx
Supplies: Hero Arts Owl Stamp. Embossing folders Swirl and Snow.  Distress inks, Tumbled Glass and Scattered Straw. Hero Arts Jems.

Play Date Cafe and a difficult challenge!!

This is the inspiration photograph for this weeks challenge at "The Play Date Cafe" and this is the challenge!!

Time to shake things up a bit and get really creative! Are you ready?
It's the first...'colour horribilis' challenge! Sarah Anderson is our host with the creative idea for this week, so let's just see what this is all about....."Are there any colours that don't go together? That clash?  Or is it just the tones of the colours that don't work out?

Navy Blue, hot pink and mustard yellow."

I really struggled to come up with a card that I actually liked, after playing with some flowers and ribbon and all sorts of combinations of paper I eventually made this card.

I love this bird cage die cut from Tim Holtz, I already had the cage cut out in a piece of old music paper, I just distressed it with Chipped Sapphire to give it dimension.  The bird is cut in hot pink card and then run through the cuttlebug in the "writing" embossing folder to give some texture.  Although the ribbon looks black, it is navy blue and the yellow shading is also Distress Ink, this time Scattered Straw.

I am not sure if I really like this but its going to be my entry this week as I can't think of anything else.  My mojo is a bit lacking as, all I can think about is having to go back to work next week after having such a lovely summer break.

I have realized that this card also qualifies for "The Simon Says Stamp and Show" Tim Holtz inspired challenge.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend, and if you are from the UK have a great Bank Holiday Monday!
Sallyx
Supplies: Hero Arts Digital butterfly, Distress inks in Scattered Straw, Chipped Sapphire and Tumbled Glass.

Cupcakes!!

Now that I have finished the invitations I have had time to make a card for Jenny's challenge over at the Wee Memories blog "Sweet Treats with Ribbons". The challenge is sponsored by May Arts ribbons.  They have some really lovely ribbons in their store.

I wanted my card to look like a table with the cupcakes on, the background "tablecloth" is stamped with the Lace Background stamp from Hero Arts and the doily is created with the Starburst Lace stamp which has been embossed in white and the rubbed with Worn Lipstick distress ink.  The ruffle gingham ribbon is from May Arts and I found it in the UK here .
The cupcakes are a digital image from Squigglefly, I have coloured them with copic markers then added Glossy Accents to the cherries and Perfect Pearls and Glitter to highlight the cupcakes.

Supplies: Hero Arts stamps, S5341 Lace Background, S5317 Starburst Lace. Distress Inks, Victorian Velvet and Worn Lipstick. Cupcake image, Squigglefly.

Just had to show you a photograph of these amazing peppers and chilli's that my neighbour gave to me yesterday, he grows them in the green house where he works, lots of varieties here and such lovely bright colours.  I just need to decide what to cook with them.  Apparently I have to be careful with the orange ones as they are very hot!!
Sallyx