Rudolph Day - September

I bought this stamp last year but hadn't used it. All the cards I had seen using it were so pretty I decided to show it some love and ink. The first six attempts went in the bin! I was using markers to colour the stamp but it either didn't stamp properly or was too dark. Spritzing it with water was also a disaster. Eventually I turned to Youtube for some hints.

 

So this one was inked with Distress Inks then some painting added on top. I used some Hot Press Watercolour paper which is why it is creamy. I wasn't convinced that the stamp was stamping properly so I made a second card using just one colour.

 

 

Brown didn't seem very Christmassy so I added a liberal amount of gold stickles and a gold mat. I've since watched another video so I'll have another try with it before I decide that Brushstroke stamps are not for me!

Challenges:

Scraps of Life (Rudolph Day)

NBUS challenge

HLS Watercolour

HLS Christmas

X Box Fan!

Both my grandsons are big X Box fans! So what better than to make an appropriate card for the eldest.  I used an image from Mo's Digital Pencil which I had printed out some time ago, which was fortunate as my computer now says it can't read the image!

Challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More

 Happy Little Stampers Birthday

Roy's birthday

The beginning of April brings a number of family birthdays, all fairly close together. The first one is Roy's. As many of you will know he is a keen collector of model soldiers, so when I came across this stamp from Picture This last year I had to buy it, and had been waiting to ink it ever since.

I coloured him with a mix of Copics and Promarkers then fussy cut him out. The background is made up of snippets of scrapbooking paper. I thought the stripy one looked a bit regimental! The sentiment strip is computer generated as I added his old Regimental cap badge to either side. I'm pleases to say it was very well received.

Challenges:

NBUS 

Snippets Playgound

Happy Little Stampers Birthday Challenge

Santa for Happy Little Stampers

Having had a break with two birthday cards, I'm back in Christmas mode.  This time I have used another NBUS stamp, this cute Santa from Uniko.

I co;oured him with Copics and fussy cut him, then gave him some HOHOHO's to stand on. This from a different Uniko set which has been used before!

 

Challenges:

Happy Little Stampers - Christmas Challenge 

NBUS

Snow Globe

This has to be the fiddliest card I've ever made! mainly because some of the pieces were so very tiny. I cut all the pieces out of white card as I really wasn't sure which piece was what or how it all fitted together. When I had worked that out I coloured the pieces with watercolour pens.

Glueing the very tiny pieces like the window frames was very, very fiddly. If you use this Tim Holtz die set you need a lot of patience! Since making it I've discovered that he has got a tutorial on putting the pieces together to make a clock. Will I use the die again? Probably but not very often!

 

Challenges:

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour.

Happy Little Stampers Christmas

Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies.

NBUS challenge 

Great Tit

I recently did an online Workshop with Matthew Palmer to paint a Great Tit. As it was only a small picture I decided to make it into a card. 

I matted it onto grey card twice to give it a good frame.No sentiment as I will add that when I send it to someone.I would like to share this at HLS watercolour challenge. It’s the first time I have joined in since leaving the DT team! 

HLS Stencil April

Oops! I scheduled the wrong time for this post, so it’s a little bit late! I’m blaming the medication for brain fog!

 Welcome to the fourth of this month's challenges at Happy Little Stampers., the Stencil challenge.

I recently did one of Eileen Godwin's workshops on Facebook and afterwards made this card as a more simplified version, but using the same techniques.

 

To start I smooshed Distress Oxides onto a craft mat sprayed with water and mopped up with the card, repeating with different colours until I was happy with the result. Then sponged through a Tracy Scott stencil with Versafine Clair ink.  Some gold pen scribbling round the petals and a sentiment added completed the card.

Do check out all the inspiration on the challenge blog.

HLS Watercolour April

Another month has flown by and it's time for the new HLS watercolour challenge. As always it is anything goes.

 

I have used a new stamp that has been sitting on my desk since before Christmas. I have to thank Darnell for enabling me!

I watercoloured it with some Whit Knights paints that had been mixed for another project - waste not, want not!

I added some splatters and a Uniko sentiment before matting onto some matching purple card.

Be sure to check out the challenge blog for more inspiration.

HLS Christmas Angel

Welcome to Happy Little Stampers Christmas challenge for March. 

 

 

The optional twist of angels is really easy or at least that's what I thought until I realised I didn't possess a single image of an angel. Not to be beaten I searched for some digi stamps and certainly found some but none I liked. Next stop the Silhouette store where I found just what I wanted.

I cut the angel out from some gold shimmer card and used the same card as a mat. The white mat is cut with a Penny Black die. I added a strip of gold printed vellum with the first two lines of Silent Night under the angel.

There's lots more inspiration if you need it on the challenge blog

Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge

 It's time for the March Christmas challenge at Happy Little Stampers. I cant believe how fast this year is going already!

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

I made this in a bit of a rush to fit round the builders finishing and having new carpets laid. I knew that as soon as that happened I wasn't going to be be able to do any crafting as I would be too busy moving things from room to room to accomodate the carpet fitters! I have used a freebie die from a couple of years ago, for the main image. The snowflakes are a Tim Holtz set.  The white glitter card was out of my scrap box. I stamped the sentiment from HLS Christmas Joy in White then heat embossed it with some WOW embossing powder.

I hope by next month's challenge that I will be back in the house, in my new craft room and things will at long last be back to normal.

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.
IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

For this card I used a Little Claire stamp that I got when they used to do monthly kits. I used watercolour pencils to colour it in, then mounted it on black then onto a cream DL card blank.

I hope you'll be able to join in this month.

Happy Little Stampers - Christmas Stockings.

Welcome back to the new Christmas challenge at Happy Little Stampers.

 Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

 IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

I decided to use another NBUS item or two! The patterned stockings are stamped then diecut with the toe,heel and top added on top. The middle stocking I just die cut so I could add my heart.

The background expression is a Creative Expressions folder Twisted Holly. Im afraid I still haven't got back into my house so the photos have been taken on the kitchen worktop which is not the best background.

Happy Little Stampers - Watercolour Challenge

 Gosh here we are in February already! And it's time for a new challenge at Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge.

 Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!


And I'm delighted to say that I have found my Brushos -yay! So I had a play with them and used some scarlet and purple on watercolour card. My original idea was to use it as a background but it evolved into a diecut heart instead! The die is a Tim Holtz set - Scribbles and Splat!

I mounted it on a panel cut with a Penny Black die and inked round the edges with Distress Oxides. The sentiment is from Uniko.

Once again there is lots of fabulous inspiration from my fellow DT members.

 

HLS Christmas Challenge.

I am delighted to say that I have also  joined the HLS Christmas challenge design team.

The first challenge for this year is CAS! When I was at the retreat in November Kylie showed us how to make light up cards, so when I got home a created a couple more for my grandsons.

    

                      

The dies are from Creative Expressions. I cut everything out of white card then coloured it with Copics. The photos are a bit dark despite playing with them. Unfortunately with the builders still in occupation my usual photography spot was unavailable!

Happy Post!

A Happy New Year to you all!

I am thrilled to tell you that I am now part of the Happy Little Stampers Design Team, and today it's time for the first challenge of 2018.

I used a NBUS Uniko stamp called Floral Lily which I embossed in Pewter, and coloured with Distress Oxides.

I'm afraid the photo is really rubbish, due to trying to take it amongst all the builders' disruption. I will be so VERY glad when they have finished, I can get my house back and my new craft room - can't wait!

I do hope you will join in the challenge, theres lots of lovely inspiration for you.

light up poinsettia

At the recent HLS Craft Retreat Kylie showed us how to make light up cards. This is one of ones I made. I used the HLS Stamp Set Season of Joy.  The images were coloured with Zig Clean Brush pens. If I’d been at home I would probably have used Copics but hadn’t taken them with me. 

The  light is behindthe centre of the poinsettia and comes on when the sentiment is pressed. I would like to enter this into the Addicted to Stamps &More challenge which is Anything Goes.

A Great Weekend!!

Last weekend I travelled down to Swindon for the Happy Little Stampers Craft Retreat, and what a great time I had with like minded people. Lots of crafting, good food, and laughter. Thank you Kylie for arranging it and being a fabulous teacher! This is the card I made at home for a challenge, which I won!

I will post more of the cards made during the Retreat in the next  few days. Going to head over to the Playground with this one and to the Penny Black Saturday challenge, and Rudolph Day extra!

Seeing Stars!

I'm determined this year to enter a few more challenges.When Less is More first started I was a regular there, entering most weeks but just lately it has become very sporadic! So this week I have a card for it -yay! Mind you I made it on Monday and have only just found time to photograph and blog it.

The theme is "Dimennsion". I used embossing paste through a stencil and added a couple of embossed lines top and bottom to edge the panel. Then I added some colour by using a red copic on the stars. With hindsight I think I preferred it all white, but don't think it would have photograhed very well!
I'm also taking this to Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge where the key word is Stencil.

A New Home

My soon to be stepdaughter is about to complete on her new house (her own since splitting with her boyfriend) and she is really looking forward to it, so of course I had to make her a card.

I've cased this from an idea seen on Pinterest but I've no idea whose card it was, if it was yours please let me know so I can give you credit for it. I made the card blank from Pool Party, the backing paper is from a very old K&Co pad, the stamps and dies are all from Stampin Up. The house is coloured with Copics. I'm entering this into HLS Anything goes with Dies, and Pixies Playground where Miss Di is celebrating 250  challenges with some super prizes.