Dashed off Dasher

In 20 minutes would you believe! From conception to finish - a bit of a change from the way I have been lately.  Anyway.......decided to enter the challenge at CR84FN:  #38 - pink, grey and black. Found a scrap of pink Christmas paper from Bo Bunny in the stash, and a piece of grey card embossed with an embossing folder from Provo Craft, and away I went.  

I decided to use the embossed card as a frame for a mounted section, so embossed the black and then cut it out, before wet embossing the SU stamp Dasher with white EP.  I added some bling, ribbon and a silver sparkly foam star, and mounting it on the pink DP and then onto a black card base. Done.

Pretty in Pink

I was playing around practising colouring with my Copics, and masking the image before spraying the background using my Copic air gun.  I love this little stamp from Lili of the Valley, and used that as the image but it was VERY fiddly to cut the mask out and as I had four images to cover, by the time I got to my last two, the mask was tearing and not fitting as well. I used XPress Mask-It and if anyone had any advice on how to use it so it doesn't tear - glad to hear from you!

Anyway, this card used the first image so the masking is pretty good, and the spraying is not too bad - it wanted an ethereal look, so didn't go for a smooth background colour. I have a book of challenges so used that to inspire the direction of the card I made with one image.

Delightful Sketches #Girly Girl
My Favourite Things #37 - Sketch
Stamp Fairy - #Glitter  (Ed - apparently you have to use one of their images so withdrawn)

The card stock is all SU - Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Regal Rose - and the DP is from Cosmo Crickets DeLovely Mini Deck.  The flowers are Prima and the stamps are from Lili of the Valley. There is glitter on the wings, hair, wand and dress of the little girl and she is coloured with Copic pens. the sentiment is stamped in Melon mambo and the pearl stick is from my stash, while the little Kaiser pearls were white but I coloured them with the Copics as well. The lace strip is SU.

Playing with Alcohol Inks

I have been doing a bit of playing with stuff I have in my stash - and decided to try my alcohol inks by Tim Holtz. I have six of these: Faded Jeans, Antique Linen, Barn Door, Scattered Straw, Forest Moss, Vintage Photo.  I used the dabbed thingy and a sheet of shiny white from SU and created a background, and then stamped it with a wide variety of SU images from a number of different sets using StaysOn inks.  The sentiment is from Verve Stamps - just arrived in the mail yesterday from their sale last month! 

I then made six cards from the one sheet.  I was trying for a shabby vintage look but I am not that good at it.  Anyway, here they are - took me all afternoon. The flowers are most probably Prima and from the stash and so is the bling (Kaiser).  The card stock is SU and the shimmer is SU's Smooch gold mist. I used the SU punch to create paper lace and various Spellbinders Nestabilities and Embossing Folders. Everything else is from the stash.

I am going to enter these in the Paper Creations Ink Challenge #8 which is Vintage or Distressed Look - mine are sort of vintage!

The whole sheet

The six cards

Making Christmas seem closer.....

....by making Christmas cards! I have just had a big party for Stampin'Up so had to design/steal ideas for a demo and make/take card. Here they are:

This is the idea stolen from the SU website and used for my make and take - I changed the colour of the EP! It uses four out of the five of the new in-colours. All materials are of course from Stampin'Up.

My demo card - the client wanted me to demo the joy fold card, so we did it as a Christmas card.  The background papers are from my Christmas stash, and not SU papers, and the stars are sticky embellishments but the rest is all SU.

The card closed. 

This was going to be my make/take but after finding that double embossing needs care and time to get used to doing I decided on the other one - the baubles are punched out of card that has been dry embossed in the Cuttlebug and then wet embossed with Versamark applied with the brayer (carefully) and then the EP. The idea is that you get only EP on the raised sections - takes practice!

This is a sneek peak at a punch that will be available later this year, (and a stamp set to go with it) made with left over double-embossed card.  

Hopefully I will get back to challenges soon - maybe tomorrow!

A Bad Week

Started off last week with lots of final work for the Census, with my Collector's books needing to be reconciled and all the material needing to be counted (enumerated!) and sorted - took four days and a very sore back to complete.  Then I took one of those phone calls that you don't like getting. News that one of my sisters had died on her way to an overseas holiday. So, not a lot done.

Since then I have not done very much at all, but today I completed a card I had started for a challenge two weeks ago and just never got completed. Here it is - Tilda has been masked and then the garden and wall stamped over her, and both were coloured with Copics. I then decided to cut her out with a die, and practice the technique of only partly cutting her out - didn't work that well but I get the drift on how to do it. The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley, and all the inks and card is SU. Flowers are Prima. 

I also went to the SU Regional Seminar, and there were several make and takes - I made one but it is not very good - my mind was not engaged. Lots of lovely stuff and while I had no swaps made, some lovely people shared anyway - here they are:

My poorly make and take one, with SU materials of course, and we were all given this stamp set - Under the Big Top - and the wheels and box were made with punches and die cuts, and images coloured with SU pens in watercolour style.

Little envelopes stamped as well

Four small cards - I mucked up the celebrate banner

This is one lovely swap - the sparkle on the swirls is very pretty and the butterfly is gorgeous. 

Another swap idea. 

Then I was given a card last week as well from a friend to whom I have introduced SU and card making to, and this is her card to me -it's so good, thanks Gimi :