Purple Poppies - A colour challenge - Chocolate Baroque

Glenda's just issued a challenge over on her blog which originated from beautiful poppies seeding themselves in the gravel where they park their cars.  They are such an unusual colour she has issued the challenge based on their colours.  As I've been off line all day due to problems with BT I thought I'd play along with this as the colours are gorgeous.......

I started off with the Artylicious Essence of Nature CD and printed out some background paper and a tag.  I then found some lovely circle frames which I also printed out.  I've then taken an 8x8" scalloped card blank and matted on some purple card which had the top and bottom edges punched with a Martha Stewart edge punch.  The background paper was matted onto some pewter mirri and black card and I then criss-crossed some purple ribbon over.  The main image is a Penny Black stamp called "Flying Stars" which I inked with Distress Inks and clear embossed.  I then used a Quickie Ink Pen and added glitter.  I cut out the circle frame using my EK Success circle cutter and added some acetate behind the aperture.  I used some shaker tape around the frame and added some more glitter to the image and mounted on top of the background papers.  The sentiment and tag were from the Essence of Nature CD and I then added some flowers.

Thanks for stopping by - please leave a comment as they are always appreciated.

Lazy Afternoon

It's been a really busy week and after I finished this card I realised I had missed the Lili of the Valley Challenge deadline.............. doh!!!  Still it's another card to add to my stash so nothing's wasted.

I chose my LOTV stamp "Lazy Afternoon" and stamped in black Memento ink so I could colour in with ProMarkers.  Before colouring in I stamped the image again (with Stazon this time) onto Frisket Film and cut out to make a mask.  Frisket Film is brilliant as it's see through and you can use it again and again.  I placed the mask over the image and then took a background stamp which I had in my stash (it's a clear stamp with no name on it and I can't remember where I got it from) and stamped the background in Memento Bamboo Leaves.  I then removed the mask and coloured in the stamped image with ProMarkers.  I used the same method as yesterday when using my labels nestie - the top part of the image was too high for the die so I cut that part out with scissors.  I then matted onto matching cardstock.  The background paper is from Essence of Nature by Artylicious.  The central border is punched using Martha Stewart deep edger and the sentiment is from a Stampin Up set.  A ribbon, some flowers and a pin finished the card.

Thanks for looking.

Rustic Beauty

The September challenge over at Flourishes is:  Rustic Beauty: As the leaves start to change colors to usher in fall, we want to see your rustic beauty! Interpret this challenge however you like – want to use a little distressing? Want to use shades of rust? Want to use things that look aged or antiqued? You choose!  


I have just made a card which is the homework card, the theme of which was Autumn, for our club night on Wednesday and it seems to fit the bill.  On a square cream card blank I used some backing paper from the new Artylicious Essence of Nature CD 

This is in lovely autumnal colours.  I then die cut some leaves, using my Spellbinders leaf dies, in varying colours and, leaving the die still on the card, inked each one with chalk inks.  I then stamped the pheasant (from SU Autumn Days set) using Big & Juicy Spice and clear embossed.  I also stamped the sentiment which is from the SU Sincere Salutations using the same recipe as above.  I then cut this out using my nesties Lacy Circles and mounted it on co-ordinating card which had been stamped and embossed using SU Large Medallion stamp.  A ribbon down the side of the card, some gems and Stickles copper glitter glue completed the card.

Thanks for stopping by.

No stamping tag card

On the Die Cut Dreams Challenge blog this week the challenge is to make a card featuring a tag but with absolutely no stamping on it at all.

I immediately turned to my new Artylicious Essence of Nature double CD set as there are some lovely tags on the 2nd CD which match up with some of the papers on CD1.  I chose a lovely large tag with the image of gently lapping water at the bottom and then printed out the matching paper.  The sentiment was computer generated within the CD.  The base card is an A5 blank.  The border across the centre has been punched with a Martha Steward deep edge border punch with added lace and some torn vellum goes from top left to bottom right of the card.  The flowers are also from the CDs, cut out and decoupaged with a brad in the centre.  A little lace on the tag and some rather "blingy" gems finished the card.

Thanks for looking.

Essence of Nature

I've just received my long awaited Essence of Nature double CD from Artylicious and it's absolutely scrumptious!!!  Glenda has posted a competition over on the Graphicus Blog to make something with the new CD's and be in for the chance of getting the cost refunded so I couldn't wait.  The only problem is choosing which paper to use - they are all so lovely but at least I know I can print out what I want, when I want it, so I don't have to sit and stroke my one sheet!!!  lol

I chose my design and printed it out on super smooth printer card.  I also printed out a sheet of tags.  On the tag I stamped and embossed in copper a sentiment from Elusive Images "Loving Sentiments" stamp set.  I then took a piece of heat embossable acetate and stamped and embossed in copper trees from the Elusive Images "Tall Trees" set.  I attached a piece of copper ribbon to the tag and used d/s foam to mount it on the background.  I then took three paper flowers and edged them with copper ink and used a copper brad to put together and then placed this to the side of the tag.  I used narrow red liner tape on the backing card and stuck the acetate down each side so it was "domed".  This was placed on an A5 card blank which I made out of a pale copper pearlised card and placed two fine copper peel offs down the edges to hide the red liner tape.  A simple card made very effective with this wonderful CD.

Thanks for looking.