Not a birthday?

 Good morning blogland,

It's Saturday and time for a new challenge at Sweet Stampin' Challenge this fortnight I am actually meant to be joining in and the theme is 'Anything but a birthday card'. Fairly straight forward this fortnight, anything you care to make - as long as there is some stamping (rubber or digital) on it somewhere - but not a birthday card.

I'm using an image I coloured from lessons I took from Mindy at My Creative Scoop some time ago.  I loved colouring the image, but I had no idea what I use it for when I was colouring it. So, once done, I sat and stared at it for a bit and decided it would be a good anniversary card - so that's how I finished it.

Said card:

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

As far as I know it's unique to Mindy Baxter's lessons at My Creative Scoop 

coloured with my Copics

Dies:

Pretty Pink Posh - Scallop Borders

Lawn Fawn - 'Happy (heart) Day'

Anything else:

Dotty card

I do hope you find time to pop over to the challenge blog - my Teamies have made some wonderful 'not birthday' cards and it's always a fun challenge to join in with!

Fair warning, it won't be long before you see me again - but for now, cheerio!

Sarah

So not Valentines!

Afternoon blogland,

So, this is Valentine's Day, is it? Has to be said not something that is particularly bothered with in our house. Hubby gets me (and TTT) a bunch of flowers, but he does that even when there isn't any real reason to, so you can't say it's because it's Valentine's Day. Personally I think it's all rather over-rated, but then (as the two significant others in my household keep telling me) I'm a bit of a grump!

Having said all that, I did still make cards over the weekend that feature hearts and cuteness and a teddy and a 'love monster'.  I'll share one today and another in my next post - don't want to overwhelm you with too much lovey dovey stuff!

I reasoned that as neither card says Valentine's on it, they could be for anything and I just really wanted to colour the images! Of course, I did offer them, again, as Valentines' cards to TTT - but, again, they were turned down.  She doesn't like teddies or dinosaurs (even though I pointed out it was a monster not dinosaur) and also she and 'The Boyfriend' have agreed not to exchange cards.  Cards are just a pointless waste of natural resources - oh dear! 

So here is card No 1, which shall be known as 'The Teddy':

Supplies used:

Digital image:

Lee Holland Art - Teddy with Heart

coloured with Copics

Dies:

Un-branded stitched rectangle

My Favorite Things - Die-namics: Inside out stitched circles

Paper:

My Mind's Eye - Lucky in Love

Anything Else:

Linen card

white gel pen

ages old chipboard embellishment

Pretty Pink Posh - layered hearts stencil

Distress Ink

What did I do?

Used Word to re-size the digi image, then printed out onto Copic friendly paper, coloured in with my Copics (added highlight with white gel pen) and fussy cut out.

Die-cut a rectangle from the linen card, then cut a corner out with the circular die.

Stencilled hearts over that panel with the Pretty Pink Posh stencil and some Distress Ink.

Glued patterned paper to the back of the panel and glued it all to the card blank.

Popped the teddy onto 3d foam and attached it over the patterned paper.

Added the chipboard embellishment as shown on the linen card.

et voila, job done!

To my mind the 'fall in love - forever' embellishment comes across as a bit sinister. We're going to be together forever (maniacal laughter follows) but then I have a very dark sense of humour and a cynical / grumpy mindset - I'm sure to everyone else it's a lovely sentiment!

Also the picture is very light - I'm still playing with the settings on the light box and find I can't leave it at one setting for every card, works for darker backgrounds but my lighter cards end up being a bit washed out.  I'm learning!!

So hope everyone who does 'do' Valentines has a lovely day - and if you don't 'do' Valentines, have an even lovelier day!! :-)

Signing off now,

See you soon,

Sarah

Challenge /s:

The Cutie Pie Challenge Blog: Challenge #168 Theme - Hearts and Flowers. Lots of hearts, no flowers! :-)

Use your Stuff: #441 - Hearts/Love. The paper is many years old (maybe 7/8?) and I've got two packs of it as I liked it that much! The embellishment will be around the same sort of age, if not older (and I'm running out of them - very bad!).

We Love Stamping: February challenge - Anything stamped (option of stencilling)

Di's Digi Challenge: Use red and/or pink

Little Red Wagon: Be my love - Valentine: #640

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge: Challenge #626 Love/Valentine

Not for me

 Good evening blogworld,

This is not for my anniversary - I've still got the card that I didn't give him this year put away for next year.  This purely made for fun and joining in with challenges.

So how's your week been going? Mine has been pretty quiet, which is nice really after half-term chaos last week. The biggest event in our world is that TTT's flute teacher has changed - the new lady is 'more organised and just as nice', so we're told, as the previous lady! Em's done pretty well with flute - she's quite a musical kid - and played cello and recorder at Primary School but dropped them when she moved into Secondary.  Then she chose the flute last September, in Year 9, when she picked options for GCSE and one of her choices was music for which you need an instrument.  She's just about to take her Grade 3 which to me, who enjoys music but is not musical as such, seems to have been quite quick progress. Am I right, or just a biased mum??

So enough waffle, time to share a different thing - my card!

Supplies Used:

Rubber Stamps:

Stamping Bella - Lovey Gnomes

Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips : Background

Dies:

Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips : Rounded

un-branded heart

Whimsy Stamps - Zig Zag Edger Die Set

Anything else:

Papermania - Hampstead paper pack

What I did:

Stamped the image on Copic friendly paper, then coloured in with my Copics and fussy cut it out.

Used the Whimsy die to cut strips from three different patterned papers from the paper pack.

Cut the heart from some red card.

Stamped and die-cut out the sentiment.

Glued the three strips of patterned paper across the bottom third of my card blank, then glued the heart on top of the papers.

Put 3d foam on the image and sentiment and popped them on the card too.

et voila, job done!

That's me for today folks, will be back soon!

Signing off,

Sarah

Challenge / s:

Passion for Markers: Week 616 - 3 or more papers

The Male Room: Challenge #156 Gnomes

Krafty Chicks Challenge: #584 Week 1 - (Stamp Act)

AAA Cards: Game #202 - Sketch + optional twist gnomes

Oooh, I'm terrible

 Hello Blogland,

Anybody else who has a significant other who remembers their Wedding Anniversary when you don't??

That's me folks! I'm better at birthdays, terrible at anniversaries.

So this would've been the anniversary card I made for the Hubby - but it's about a week late, so I'm not bothering now.  I'll probably put it to one side for next year, but making sure I don't put it with the bar of chocolate that got brought for TTT one year as a Christmas present and has totally vanished!!

Hubby's not into cutesy stuff - which I normally make (when I remember) as a joke card for him. This is definitely more his style, even with the pink.  He's not afraid of pink!!

Card:

Trying to get the shine / shimmer / glitter:

How I made it:

Die-cut out a Memory Box die (Heart Ensemble) from sparkly pink-ish card (left in a couple of the hearts - it should be all outlines).

Took a black card base, masked off two thirds of the card and sprayed the lower third with Cosmic Shimmer.

Placed the pre-printed sentiment inside the die-cut - shuffled it around a bit until I was happy with the look and then 3d foam'd it all onto card blank.

et voila, job done!

(Took longer to get a good picture of it than it took to make!)

Signing off now,

See you later,

Sarah

Challenge / s:

Allsorts Challenge: Week 640 - Anything Goes (option for the love of your life)

Less is More: #451 - Sparkle

Watercooler Wednesday: WWC324 - All About Occasions

Creative Craft Cottage: #144 - Anything but a Square