Hugs & Kisses

The latest challenge over at Addicted to CAS is Hugs & Kisses; I liked the new sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches so I decided to play along there for the first time. The only image stamp I had which fitted the hugs part of the challenge was this old Forever Friends one.

I stamped the image in Memento Toffee Crunch onto Limetree Crafts card, then dug out my Promarkers for the first time in a while. I used Oatmeal, Vanilla & Ivory for the fur, Sand Dune for the noses & envelope, Oasis & Cornflower for the gift. The sentiment, by Francoise Read for Woodware, was stamped in Hero Arts Pastel Blue Shadow Ink. The backing paper was a Forever Friends one from my stash.

Christmas Trees

The challenge over at Less is More this week is "More Than One Tree"; I didn't count how many are on here but there's definitely more than one! The starting point for this card was the sketch over at Addicted to CAS and a very old set of stamps by Woodware, coloured with Promarkers. The finished result looked a bit flat & boring so I added a touch of Wink of Stella to the red and the stars, which you can just about see in the photo below. The card was still flat & boring so I finished off with a gold edge to the image & greeting, which were both popped up on foam squares.

Geometric

Another week, another challenge, this time the one over at Addicted to CAS where the theme is geometric. This was an ideal opportunity to try out a recent Ebay purchase of some Clearly Besotted stamps & dies, and another watercolour technique. This time the technique is to emboss with the dies rather than cutting the card, and to let watercolour paint fill the embossed lines.

I decided to cut out one or two of the shapes to let the black background show through, and stamped some of them with a variety of the stamps from the set. The greeting is by Woodware, and the enamel dots were created with Ranger Enamel Accents.

Glitter Wishes

This card is for a very special young man called Owen, who loves music and is the life and soul of any party he goes to - he loves celebrating birthdays, even if it's not his own!

I'm entering this into the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp, where the challenge is "Make it Sparkle". Although this card doesn't look sparkly, I painted the large birthday letters with clear Wink of Stella as I hope you can see in this close-up -

Stamps: Inkylicious musical background, Woodware Large & Small Greetings

Ink: Hero Arts

Cardstock: Anna Marie Designs

Watercolour Grunge

I'm taking part in an online watercolour class at the moment, and one of the techniques on day 1 was using stencils with watercolours. This was my second attempt and it ended up looking more grungy than I intended, but as I needed to make a card for a teenage boy that was a happy accident! I had intended the finished card to be a little more CAS than it is, but a not-so-happy accident was getting some stray black ink where I didn't want it, so I had to cover that up with grunge stamps.

My first attempt had turned out too pale, so this time I dug out my Whispers brush markers which I haven't used for a couple of years as it belatedly occurred to me that they could be used for watercolouring, and they worked really well. 

Stencil: Mini Punchinella by Balzer Designs

Ink: Hero Arts

Stamps: Greetings - Woodware Large & Small, guitar & grunge - Inspired by Stamping
Backing paper: Bazzill

Bowled Over

Cards for my nephews' birthdays all tend to revolve around cricket, and this one is no exception. I don't have very many cricket stamps, though, so I decided it was time I became more inventive with the ones I have got.

The main image was a test of my new Woodware stamp positioner to stamp 4 times without re-inking the stamp in between, therefore using the second, third & fourth generation ink.

The background was created using a mix of background stamps & masks with several generations of ink. It turned out more grungy than I'd intended but I was still quite happy with it.

Cardstock: Coredinations

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps: Woodware FRCL069, Kaisercraft, Inspired by Stamping.

Clean & Simple Stamping Sketch 258

I'm well out of my comfort zone today! I saw this sketch and decided I'd play along, using up some of the crafty stash I've been hoarding for ages.

The papers & green cupcake tag are by WRMK. I used an EK Success punch to make another cupcake out of matching paper & plain white card (covered in Glamour Dust) then mounted it on some of the matching cardstock.

The greeting is by Woodware, stamped in Memento Love Letter, with a bit of bling provided by Crystal Glamour Dust.

13th Birthday Boy

Today is my son's 13th birthday.  At the moment he spends every spare moment playing his guitar so it was obvious what the choice of image would be!  He's also very patriotic so I decided to use Portobello Road papers and a red, white & blue theme.

Woodware Boy Zone stamp, coloured with Promarkers.  Papermania Portobello Road papers, Woodware chipboard numbers coloured with Promarkers & Anita's 3D gloss used to finish.