D is for...

This evening I'm sharing my latest dictionary creation. It's 'D with a twist of pink' this fortnight and having scoured the D's there were three words I could have chosen. I have to say, on the whole the letter D makes some fairly depressing reading what with all the 'de' and 'dis' prefixed words, not to mention all those associated with death.

Still, nothing depressing here... I went with dandelions, dragonflies and daisies!

The stamps are Crafty Individuals build a meadow set which I first came across at a Helen Chilton class at the craft barn... it seems we've come full circle! 

I think this would have benefited from me dulling down the text in the background a bit first but I was a bit shy on time. To help define each flower I added some white gel pen to the daisies, wink of stella to the dandelions and the all important touch of pink to the seed heads. The dragonflies also have wink of stella on their wings but unfortunately it didn't want to be photographed today!

As the three words all occurred on different pages, the definition I have highlighted is the one for dandelion.

As well as the craft barn challenge, this seems just fitting for the Craft Stamper spring flowers challenge and stamping sensations, one for the girls challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lou x

Geom-etris

The challenge set by Less is More this week is to create a one layer card incorporating geometric shapes. I wanted to have a purpose my shapes and have spied some lovely cards in the gallery that do just that (still swooning over the ones with honeycomb hexagons!)

So I thought, what is Geometric? And while the answer could be many many things, Tetris, popped in to my head! The retro computer game where you have to slot geometric shapes in to one another... it probably has something to do with my (slightly geeky) husband being really in to his retro gaming...

Anyway, this is what I created...

It was slightly more challenging to create than you might think and I have safely concluded I would be hopeless at the game as it gave me brain ache just trying to slowly slot the shapes in to one another, let alone at speed! 

I happened upon a tiny trio of square stamps in my stash and used these in the original Tetris colours and shapes. I drew a reverse L in the corner of each little square with a pro marker, and added glossy accents over them all. The sentiment is from Woodware. 

I would have liked to have used a black card base but the colours wouldn't have come through properly so I have made my peace with it!

Simon Says Stamp are celebrating 7 years with a Birthday special so I am linking in there too today - Happy Birthday SSS!

Rabbits and Ovals

I thought I was going to have to let this fortnight's Craft Barn challenge pass me by as I couldn't find any way of creating an oval but I finally had a brain wave this morning, and here we are, just in time. I had a quick rummage through the left over recycling and found an old Easter egg box, bingo! It had an oval shape cut in the front - the perfect stencil for my needs! The oval was rather small so I made a little note card. As Easter is over for this year I wanted to make something that could be sent anytime.
I came up with this using Card-io and Stampendous stamps and distress inks. I finished it with wink of stella and liquid pearls.

Apologies for the awful photo, taken in the dark this evening and my camera has an absolute hissy fit if I try to use the flash!

Happy Birthday!

Today I'm sharing with you a card I've made for my friends birthday. I had an exciting delivery of a craftwork cards goody box this week and so the card base and sentiment are from them. The stamp is of course penny black and I've added a few embellishments to finish off.

I'd like to enter this in to the following challenges;

Simon says stamp- Happy Birthday
Allsorts - Purple passion
Penny black and more - Birthdays
Penny black Saturday - April Showers
The Craft Barn - April Showers

Not quite white

This week the challenge set us by Less is More is to have white space that isn't white. I.e. coloured blank space on your card. There was a time when every card I made started with a piece of colourful cardstock from the pick and mix at my local craft store but those days are in the distant past and it seems I have got in quite a white rut. Still, I thought, it cant be that hard...

This is card number one, I also wanted to link this in to the ATCAS inlaid dies challenge. Not a technique I've used before. After a woeful morning with a branch die that just wouldn't cut I switched tactics and went for the Tim Holtz word die with Lavinia stamps fairies. Although the card has worked, I'm just not that pleased with it. Dunno...

This was take two with a rainbow as my non-white space, and then I got to thinking, is it actually white, not white? I  made this with the simon says stamp's 'try to resist' challenge in mind as well. The resist is created with white embossing powder and the inks are versa colour. 

Card three is made with some exciting new stash from a craft work cards goody box that arrived yesterday... getting there...

And finally, I think this is my fave, also made with new craftwork cards stash. I'm linking this one in to Simon Wednesday's 'Happy Birthday' challenge and Casology's sprout challenge.

That's all for now... only just got there tonight! I'd love to hear what you think of my attempts at not white, do you have a favourite?

Lou x

G is for...

I know it has already been done by the design team, and by several others of you, but I had it in my head all along that when G came around this is what I'd do, so this fortnight 

G is for ... Giraffe!

I started by inking the whole page with ranger distress ink, then stenciling an imagination crafts leaf stencil over in ranger lucky clover DI.  

The stamps are all fairly old ones by francoise for woodware (the giraffes are wooden block mounted which made the masking and stamping particularly tricky! 

The grass, trunks and leaves all come from thte same set called jungle retro. I stamped in various greens, the trunks are ranger ground espresso DI and the giraffes are coloured with promarkers in ginger and bright orange.

Thanks for calling by today, hope you like my dictionary page, I wonder what the next letter will be at the Craft Barn?

As well as the craft barn dictionary challenge I'd also like to enter this in to Simon says stamp anything goes.

Washi tape, polka dots and more

I had a little card making time this morning, so I decided to combine a few challenges to come up with this. Less is more are asking for creations with polka dots, Little Claires and Simon says stamp wednesday have 'anything goes' challenges running, ATCAS are looking for delicate creations and CASology want to see washi tape used. 

I started with the polka dot washi tape and stamped Little Claires bicycle stamp in impress chocolate ink. I added ranger's ground espresso distress ink around the edge and some delicate punched paper flowers with a liquid pearl dot in the centre of each. The whole thing is mounted on 3D foam mounts.

Thanks for stopping by today, Lou x