Happy Birthday, Shery!

Sweet birthday wishes for the sweetest person in blogland, Shery of STAMPlorations! Creator and designer of STAMPlorations, CUTplorations and ARTplorations products, somehow she miraculously manages to grow the business while bringing up two adorable little girls - Superwoman!

The DT have got together for a virtual birthday celebration on the STAMPlorations blog.  I'm fashionably late to the party but to make up for it, you get a little sneak peek of my latest stamp set.  Keep your eyes 'peeled' (sorry!) over at the STAMPlorations blog in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, pop over to the STAMPlorations blog where you can see all the gorgeous cards from the DT.  If you're thinking of doing any shopping while you're there, there's a sale on until 9 July.

I'm playing along at The Paper Players, where the theme is Celebration in honour of their 400th challenge.

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Celebrate With Balloons

It's celebration time at The Paper Players in honour of their 300th challenge, so I thought I'd blow up a few balloons to help the celebrations along.  The middle one must be a foil helium balloon, judging by its crinkly edges ;)

I've used the colour scheme from Uniko Studio's photo challenge, along with Uniko Studio stamps.  You have to look hard for the grey on the blue balloon, but it's there.

And because I've used three or more colours (Dried Marigold, Worn Lipstick, Evergreen Bough, Hickory Smoke) I'm playing along with Virginia's View where it's All About Colour.

My inspiration came from this gorgeous card by Maria.  Cheers, dear :)

Ballet Lessons

Ever since the SmallBirds saw this pin on my Pinterest board, they've been pestering me to take ballet lessons.  Not one to stand in the way of their development, I made them some tutus from PartyDresses and gave them some legs to pirouette on.

I'm adding this to Kylie's surprise birthday hop for Kim of Cupcakes Cards and Kim.  Hope you had a wonderful birthday, Kim - and that you're still celebrating!

Here's one of the other SmallBirds en pointe (quick learners, aren't they?)

This one's headed for The Paper Players Clean and Simple challenge:

And, performing a grand jeté, we have this little birdie sending get well wishes.

I'm entering this card into Inkspirational where the challenge is Pink and Grey.

ETA: and The Card Concept:

Stamped and Stencilled Flowers

I've been stamping through stencils to create these lovely blue flowers.  If you want to see exactly how I did it, there's a tutorial on the STAMPlorations blog tonight.

I'm entering this into The Paper Players - The Great Outdoors,

and Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes.

Just a reminder that the theme for The Mixed Media Card Challenge this month is BLUE with the option of vase.

Flying High

I haven't been playing in many challenges lately (too busy with last week's STAMPlorations birthday blog hop!) but I've managed to make a card for a few challenges.

I spritzed some card with Dylusion inks, then once dry I stamped the images with Versafine Onyx Black.  The sentiment is from a set, 'Written Greetings' by Stamps Away and the images are from a magazine freebie set by Sheena Douglass.

I'm entering this into Virginia's View, 100% Stamped:

CAS(E) This Sketch - didn't stretch it too much!

The Paper Players - The Great Outdoors

Floral Birthday

I've been trying to resist buying woodblock stamps, but I love the brushstrokes stamps by Penny Black, so I had to make an exception when this one was on sale.

I coloured it with Distress Markers, spritzed and stamped the main image, then just coloured the small flower, stamped it off, then spritzed and stamped it in the opposite corner.  Added a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp and doodled a border to bring it all together.

I'm entering this into:

The Paper Players - CAS Floral

CAS(E) This Sketch

Fusion

and Simon Says Wednesday - Spring Pinterest Inspiration

(the colour scheme from the easter baskets on the right, and the flower on the hat, top left).

Dream A Little Dream

Today I'm using some of the older STAMPlorations stamp sets.  I've used Trendy Feathers and Artful Flutters, both from the Vignette series.

The card is based on a lesson from my online mixed media class, Lifebook 2015, where we drew a feather onto a similar background to this.  When I spritzed the background (Dylusions) there was a white gap which was shaped like an 'a' so I created the sentiment around that.  I wrote 'little' in white pen then edged it with black.  I added some colour and white pen to the feather.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog to see the fabulous designs from the rest of the Inspiration Team.  If you fancy CASEing this card, or any other cards by the Inspiration Team, you can include yours in our CASEplorations challenge.

I'm entering my card into Simon Says Monday Challenge, No Rules

and The Paper Players, where I'm up to my stretch-a-sketch tricks again.  My circle is the big splodge of blue and green ;), my sentiment is lower and not on a banner, and my funny 'a' represents the twine, but hey, I've got a feather!

Watch The Birdie

When I grow up I want to be able to watercolour like Dawn Woleslagle.  I'd also like to be able to sketch like her too!  I love how she let the colours bleed away from the bird into the background on this YouTube video, and I wanted to attempt something similar - attempt being the operative word, mine looks like a real bruiser compared to Dawn's delicate painting.

I used my homemade kingfisher stamp - the good news is that a slightly smaller version of the kingfisher (and a few of his friends) will be released under the Bee's Knees line in the STAMPlorations April release, so watch this (birdie) space.

I stamped the kingfisher with Versamark and white-embossed it, then sloshed on some Distress Inks.  I decided that I would iron off the embossing.  I can tell you from experience that ironed-off white embossing is nowhere neat as good as ironed-off clear embossing, but hey-ho.

I'm entering this into The Paper Players - CAS - Feathered Friends (feature a bird on your card),

and also into Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - All Creatures Great and Small,

and Simon Says Monday Challenge - Paradise.  I always think kingfishers look exotic with their colourful plumage.  A kingfisher family lives on the river near us and DH is lucky enough to see one now and again on his dog walks.

Christmas Rosebuds

I wanted to make a Christmas card with my Rosebud stamps, so I wanted it to be stylish, elegant and dramatic.  Bit of a black tie do.  As it happens, the challenge at The Paper Players is Black Tie: Holiday Projects that are Fancy.

Maybe not too fancy, but definitely posh enough for Black Tie.  I inked the image in Old Paper Distress Ink, then painted it with Festive Berries and Mowed Lawn.  I added a bit of Antique Linen around the edges of the image, then offset-mounted it onto silver mirri card, and then onto a splattered card base.  The sentiment is from Oh, Christmas Tree - I love the Dymo style sentiments.

I'm also entering it into Simon Says Monday Challenge, Anything Goes.

Autumn Walk

Been playing with my new Bee's Knees stamp set again for a few challenges.  Firstly, The Paper Players, where there's a colour challenge:

And TIME OUT, where we're to CASE this card by the fabulous Heather T, with a twist:

My twist is just a few background leaves on an otherwise monochrome panel.

And I'm also playing at Simon Says Monday Challenge, the letter 'O'.  My 'O' is using my own stamps :)

Stamps: The Bee's Knees - City Girl

Seize The Birthday - Sweet Treats

(I'm multi-tasking today, posting a few cards because I'm running out of time to get them all in!)

Sweet treat anyone?  Low no calorie?  Yup, thought so :)  It's time for a new challenge at Seize The Birthday, and this time the toppings option is Sweet Treats.  What does that bring to mind?  Cake, ice cream, macarons, chocolate, all of the above?

I used an old Stampendous stamp, Tiers of Treats, and drew a matching scribbly border.  The sentiment is from Ladybug Crafts, It's Only Words.  I added some glossy accents to the strawberries and cherries, which doesn't show up on the photo above, but you can see better on this close-up.

If you don't have a sweet tooth, you can still play along, as long as it's a birthday project.  Pop on over to the Seize The birthday blog to see the sweet treats that the rest of the Design Team have lined up for you, and join in the fun.

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Here's a leftovers card.  When I was stamping my dragonfly for my 12 Tags of 2014, I stamped an extra one just in case.  So I added some alcohol inks to the back, cut it out and added it to a base panel.

I had made the base panel way back in the Online Card Class Stencilled class and it's been sitting around since then.  I had mixed gold paint in with the Polyfilla and pasted through the leaf cluster stencil, then sprayed gold glimmer mist over the panel.  And there it sat, waiting patiently to be used.  So this week I sponged some Distress Inks over the panel (the gold glimmer mist still shines through, although you can't see in this photo).  I stapled some of the cutout acetate to the top of the card panel.

I'm entering this into The Paper Players - Happy Fall Y'all

and Inspiration Emporium - Fall Is In The Air

and The Male Room - Autumn/Fall

and Mixed Media Mojo - Fall/Autumn and Embossing Paste

(and a quick reminder for you that the Mixed Media Card Challenge for September is Autumn - check it out.)

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My third card is for Papertake Weekly - Repeat Repeat (I've repeated the text stamp for my background)

and for Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Create Your Own Background

I used STAMPlorations Vignette: Christmas Block for the background and Holiday Sketches: Christmas Bells.  And another reminder that the STAMPlorations blog hop is still on.  Click here to hop.)