Embellish it!

 Morning blogland,

It's Tuesday and therefore time for a new challenge over at Passion for Markers and (as you might have guessed) the theme this week is 'Embellish it'. It's our lovely Teamie Marie who picked this theme, and I can see it being popular, with our Sponsor being Di's Digi Stamps with a great prize for the lucky winner.

Now some years ago I would've loved this challenge and used any of the flowers, gems, twine, butchers string, lace, gems, etc that I regularly used and loaded the card up.  These days I'm more of a 'striped back' sort of crafter - so the gems are there, and a die-cut, but not much else really.  I look back, sometimes, at the cards I made 10 / 15 years ago and wonder where did the desire to bung so much on a card go!

Anyways - here's my card.  Please remember this is a markers challenge - the brand doesn't matter, but you do need to use markers somewhere on your project and follow the theme to be in with a chance at the prize.

Supplies used:

Rubber stamp:

Lili of the Valley - Birthday Penguins

coloured with my Copics

Anything else:

Scrap of die cut patterned paper

scrap of die-cut white card

scrap of die-cut bunting

Distress Ink and blending brush

Craftwork cards pre-cut sentiment

flat backed gems

I knew when I was making this card it was using up various scraps that were sitting on my desk, but I didn't realise it was using quite so many!

And that's it folks, my Teamies have made some lovely embellished cards, you should really take a wander over and have a look!

See you soon,

Sarah

All about the men

 Morning blogland,

It's time for a new challenge over at Sweet Stampin' and this fortnight we'd like to see those 'Masculine Makes' - as always there does need to be stamping on your project (be that rubber or digital) but it doesn't need to be a card.  This is a 'for fun' challenge, so no sponsors or prizes - other than the kudos of being a Top 3 pick!

I've been running around a bit like a headless chicken again this week - you can blame that on the fact that we are now pulling down the the wall at the back half of our kitchen to open it all up.  What used to be on the other side of that wall was a corridor with small rooms and what will become is one big kitchen with integrated appliances, a 2nd sink, a large larder unit, coat cupboard, broom cupboard and bin storage  / shoe changing / bench perching area.  This all means that crafting time is a little compromised so this is a relatively quick card.

Supplies used:

Stamps:

Honey Bee - Bitty Buzzwords

Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips: Man, Myth, Legend

Dies:

Creative Expressions - Nobel Collection: double stitched squares

Creative Craft Products - Nestables stars die set

Creative Craft Products - A2 essentials: Landscape card die set (there are 'additions' to card blank die with this set and that's what I used to cut the happy birthday out)

Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips: well rounded

Anything else:

Lisa Horton Crafts - 3D embossing folder: numerical

bakers twine

Bo Bunny - Weekend Market 6x6 paper pad

Craftwork Cards - paper dots

I wouldn't have called it the most 'masculine' of cards, which is why the 2nd sentiment was added but I have to admit I like the look of a 'double' sentiment so I might well do that again.  Took all of 20 mins to make, once I'd actually decided what to do and that part took most of the afternoon!

Please take a wander over to Sweet Stampin' and see what my Teamies have made - there are some wonderful masculine cards on display.

To go back to life chez Sarah for a moment, we've had quite a lot of ongoing house renovation over the last few years, what with the gym extension, the upstairs bathroom renovation, and now the kitchen being re-done.  One day, I'm sure we will finish but that day isn't quite yet! I will post some progress pictures at some point as well of the kitchen work, so you can see the chaos we live in!

Bye for now,

Sarah

Seeing red...

 (or pink!)

Morning blogland

It's new challenge morning for Team 1 over at Passion for Markers and this week the challenge theme is 'use red and/or pink' with our sponsor being SheepSki Designs.

The D.T. were very kindly allowed to pick a digi stamp to use - if they wanted - this is my make with my pick:

Digital Stamp:

SheepSki Designs - Sleep Tight

coloured with my Copics

Rubber stamp:

Tonic Studios - Say it with Sentiments

Dies:

un-branded stitched rectangle set

Whimsy Stamps - Big Hugs die set

Anything else:

some light pink card

My goodness I had a few problems with this card - how is it some come together perfectly and others just fight you all the way!  The pink linen effect card wasn't pink in some lights, the 'hugs' die was lovely to use but I decided to try cutting it along with some 3d foam (rather than cutting x3 sets of the die out and gluing it together) and it just stuck to everything! Then I ended up with glue everywhere as I didn't like to piece of card that was the top layer of the die and decided to change it.  Finally the sentiment is one stamp - I masked it to make it work how I wanted and I got rather inky, luckily, though, only on me not the card! Also those are supposed to be freckles on her face - not the measles! Phew - got there in the end and not too bad a card, even if I do say so myself - other than the measly freckles!

Anyways enough about me, pop on over to the challenge blog - my Teamies cards are lovely and I bet were made with less drama than mine!

See you soon,

Sarah