Crafty Ann's Challenge No. 11 - For Someone Special

This card is for my sister-in-law Norma who is a dear friend and has always encouraged me in my card making - right from when I first started.

I haven't made a side step card before and I was surprised how easy it was to construct. The main butterfly flourish is by Elusive Images and was stamped in black versafine and decorated with gems and pearls. I also stamped a second butterfly to add another layer, this is coloured with Sakura Stardust pens for shimmer.

The two vellum butterflies were cut with a Cuttlebug die and embossed then coloured on the reverse with markers. Pearls were added to the middles.

The sentiment is from Clarity stamps.

I hope she will like it - I have never made Norma a pink card before!

Thanks for stopping by and do please leave a comment.

Bah!-Humbug Challenge 11 - Peel Offs

I have had a sheet of gold reindeer and sleigh peel offs in my stash for ages so what an ideal excuse to dig them out! I stamped fir tree grove twice on my paper in green and then ripped up a post it note and used it as a mask for some mountains and snow drifts, sponged in Memento London Fog. I then made a mask for the moon and sponged around it with SU Bordering Blue for the sky. The moon was then sponged with SU Apricot Appeal and Bordering Blue. Cosmic Shimmerz Aqua was added to the trees for a bit of glinter and stick on stars put in the sky.

I inked around the picture with Pine Needles DI and mounted it on some grey card to which I added a gold border and then mounted it all on dark green flecked card (which looks like snow).

Thank you for visiting my blog and all comments are appreciated.

Rainbow Lady's Challenge No.96 - In my Garden I See ...

Sheep!! We are surrounded by all manner of farm animals at Redmoss. My favourites are definately sheep. Having run our own flock for a number of years I have grown to appreciate how clever and affectionate these animals are and how they have strong family bonds and cooperate with each other - especially over child minding!

My sheep stamp is from Stampin (USA) and was originally a Christmas starry night scene. I missed out the stars and sky and stamped in grey Versafine. The hedgerow is a winter tree from I Brake For Stamps Coll.3 using just the top part and stamping in various shades of green and brown. The wooden fence is a MS Trellis Deep Border stamp which I distressed with Walnut Stain. The sky is my first attempt at using a scallop circle as a mask for clouds.

Thanks for dropping by and all comments are appreciated!

Bah-Humbug! Challenge 10 - Vintage

My colour scheme for this challenge is green, cream and gold. The 1930's image is one from a wonderful freebies site Go Make Something which was layered up and mounted on cream card. The foliage was made with a Leonie Emm punch and the gold ribbon and gold beads were a gift from my neighbour Gladys. A MS deep punch made the side decoration which I distress stickled with Peeled Paint and added a yellow gem.

The backing papers are from Kraftyhands and Graphicus. I used a MS lattice punch on the corners of the green paper. The sentiment has been edged with gold glitter for a spot of bling.

Thanks for visiting and please feel free to leave a comment.

Rainbow Lady's Challenge No.95 - Acetate Overlay

An acetate overlay is a first for me! Cynthia has kindly allowed a Christmas theme if we wish so I have taken full advantage to get another Christmas card made. I used one of my favourite stamps by Crafty Individuals.

I brayered the background using Creole Spice and stamped the buildings part of the stamp in Prussian Blue. On the acetate overlay I stamped the moon, santa's sleigh and reindeer in black Stazon. The image was mounted onto navy and then onto a pistachio pearl card which picks up the colours around the buildings.

Thanks for looking and all comments are welcomed!

Crafty Ann's Challenge No.10 - Mauve, Pink and Lemon

I know I have already entered a card in this challenge but I love this colour combination so much I thought I'd have another go!

The carousel stamp is by I Brake For Stamps and the pretty backing papers are courtesy of Lilac Garden Decoupage Site. I coloured the image with cheapo coloured pencils and OMS and clear embossed afterwards so that I could sponge around the die cut.

Thanks for visiting and look forward to seeing what you think!

Two Challenges

This card qualifies for two challenges this week.

Bah-Humbug-Christmas Challenge 9 - Cool Combos - Recycling scraps, using new stash, baubles, trees and faux stitching.

Crafty Ann's Challenge No. 10 - Mauve, Pink and Lemon

The bauble and Merry Christmas stamps, used for the first time here, are by Elusive Images and were embossed in silver.

Thanks for stopping by and all comments gratefully received!

Rainbow Lady's Challenge No.94 - Mothers Day

For this challenge I thought I would like to stretch myself a little and have a go at making something with a bit of dimension and layers. I decided on a tag using a lovely vintage mother and daughter photo from my stash.

To begin I stamped the tag with a small design using Worn Lipstick Distress Ink and embossed it using a Polysparkle embossing powder. I then sponged the tag with Vintage Photo and Worn Lipstick and rubbed over the embossing with a piece of tissue to remove the ink. The die cut flourish was stamped in black with a small script stamp and sponged with WL and VP inks. Perfect pearls were brushed over some parts too. I then added some black sequins and pink gems and finally rubbed over some Walnut Stain Distress Stickles.

I coloured a silver metal name plate with alcohol inks to darken it, stamped Mother and just above this added some butterfly satin edging. I brayered a piece of copy paper with WL and scrunched it up, ran the VP ink pad over to highlight the creases and sprayed it all with Irridescent Gold Glimmer Mist. I punched out a few flowers and fixed them with dark copper brads and added a bit more of the Distress Stickles.

I do hope you like this, I am pleased with the result and delighted I could use this lovely photograph. Thanks for visiting and please feel free to leave a comment.

Spring Card

This card was made for the Creating Rainbows Forum monthly card swap. The theme was spring flowers. I chose a mandela stamp from Elusive Images and had a great time cutting out and painting with H2O paints. I kept the layout simple as I think the detailed mandela is quite enough. I just added a row of decoupaged flower heads along the bottom of the card and a nestabilities flower flourish to balance things.

Thanks for stopping by and all comments are welcome!

Bah-Humbug Challenge No. 8 - Stitching/Faux Stitching

Needlework has never been my strong point and so it was easy to choose the Faux Stitching option on this challenge.

For my image I have used I Brake For Stamps - Fir Cone Collage which I stamped in Vintage Photo and clear embossed. I then sponged with Scattered Straw and Dried Marigold Distress Inks. Did a bit of paper tearing and then used the same colours to the torn edges of the image. I made the mount of cream card on dark brown card and did some piercing around the edges for the stitch holes. Using a dark brown fineliner I joined up the holes to look like stitching and used a white gel pen for the stitching on the dark brown card. In order to get the absolutely essential touch of bling I used a shiny gold ribbon to finish things off.

Thanks very much for visiting and your comments are most welcome.

Rainbow Lady's Challenge No.93 - Create a Fan

Well, this is definitely a first for me! I have had this Elusive Images stamp for what seems like forever and never used it. To create a base to work from, I stamped the image x 4 with Versamark and embossed in gold.

I am pleased with the way the fan has turned out. I enjoyed making it and also rediscovered how good Sparkling H2O paints are. I added a few pink tone pearls, gold ribbon and tassel to complete the fan.

I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

ATC's - Furry Friends

Having taken full advantage of the Clarity Stamps sale, I could not resist finding an excuse to use this beautiful husky stamp. I made these two simple ATC's for the current Graphicus Guild Swap with the theme Furry Friends.

I have big ideas for using this beautiful image at Christmas too!

Thanks for having a look and do please leave a comment.

Rural Ramblings - A Butterfly in Winter

What a surprise we had the other morning when we found our peacock friend on the windowledge! We have a woodburning stove in the sitting room and the day before, had been bringing logs over from the wood store outside and stacking it in the inglenooks at the side of the fire. This beautiful fella had been hibernating amongst the wood and been reawakened due to the increased temperature. After enjoying his presence for a little while, John took him over to the steading (barn) in a lunch box and placed him amongst the hay. He looks like a dead leaf when his wings are closed tight. He is safe there until the days get warmer.

Bah-Humbug Challenge No.7 - Trees

At last I can enter this challenge as I certainly need some encouragement to get my Christmas cards made in good time!

This card uses Graphicus DP and Elusive Images Frosty Trees stamps. The image is understamped in Versamagic Turquoise Gem and stamped in Stampin Up Chocolate Chip. The panel is then embossed completely with Stampendous Stardust which gives a lovely glittery finish and mounted on dark brown cardstock and gold mirriboard. The snowflake stamps (Lakeland) are embossed with Stardust to co-ordinate. Two lengths of chocolate and turquoise ribbon together with a sentiment on dark brown cardstock complete the card.

Thanks for looking and your comments are appreciated.