Project 392: Swirls and Curls for MAWTT

Hi everyone! I don't know what happened but my scheduled post didn't work so I'm a few day late. Please forgive me! Our theme at Moving Along with the Times this week is Swirls and Curls. A fun brief that made me revisit some embossing folders I haven't used in ages.

I started with a sheet of card that I blended with Distress Inks in Mustard Seed and Peacock Feathers. I then embossed it using a swirly/dotted embossing folder from Sizzix. I accidentally embossed the wrong way round but I really like that it's indented rather than raised, looks much sharper actually! I stamped a humming bird and then heat embossed it so I could use Picked Raspberry Distress Ink as a watercolor on top. I fussy cut the bird out and decided on the 'Wishing you joy' sentiment from this month's Creative Stamping magazine. Finally a few little drops of liquid pearl to give some touches of bling.

It's a fun little card and I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else creates!

Project 391: Illustrated resolutions

Just a fun post. This week has been crazy! So I wanted to do a short personal post. Every year I set 5,6,7 however many resolutions I can think of and then by the end of the year some of them stick, some of them don't. But I post them on my fridge so that I can have them influence my decisions every day and even better, people comment on them and I'm held to account. So this year I thought I would do an even bigger broadcast of my resolutions and make them look good!

I wrote out all my goals and then did a rough sketch to work out what where to put each item. I did a couple of different lettering styles and added coloured pencil accents to make it a bit more colourful.  I'm really pleased how it came out, it looks even better on my fridge than my previous attempts. Who knows it may inspire greater discipline!

Project 390: Zippy to Olly card

I'm one of those weird people who gives cards to people from my dog, especially family and close friends. Zippy the dog is just nuts and lovely and crazy and such a big part of the life, why shouldn't he part of the card experience? [says the crazy person].

So for my husband's birthday I decided to give a card from little Z and I thought the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch would be perfect to pair with these Newton's Nook stamps I got in the Black Friday sale.

I stamped my little dog and colored him with ProMarkers to match the markings on Zip. He's not a daschund but oh well, I took creative license! I fussy cut him out as I wanted him to go over my patterned paper so that it would mimic the dip in the sketch. The big sentiment is an old favorite and I thought using Green Leaf dye ink by Stampin' Up would help bring it all together. I punched a balloon out of green card and added some green baker's twine to make it have some more dimension.

And as it's a celebration I thought I would also enter CASual Friday's blog challenge as well.

Here's a pic of Zip and I making the card together this afternoon:

He was pretty pleased with the result as well.

Project 389: Playing with new dies

Claire and I had a great playdate over the break and I had held back playing with some of my new dies from Black Friday until she had them as we like to try new stuff together. So weird, so sad, I know.

The headline card is a little one that we made featuring these great little Monsters from Claire's BF haul and the new dies I got in the Simon Says Stamp sale. I blended the background of the circle in a few different Distress Inks and then colored the monster in ProMarkers and die cut him out. I didn't love my coloring but oh well, I can try to fix that later I guess if it really bothers me! The stars are stencilled on using an Avery Elle stencil and the sentiment came with the monster set. Love him, he makes me laugh.

This next one features a chevron die that I got from my BF haul and man is it a beast to work with. This guy went through the Big Shot about 10 times and I still couldn't get all of the little lines to pop out. Sighs. We decided it was good enough to use anyway! I added a few paper and fabric flowers from my stash and I added enamel dots in matching colors to make it a bit more colourful and cheerful. The sentiment is from Claire, last summer I think, and I like these ones with the brackets, they are nice and modern. 

Such a fun date, I think I have one more post up my sleeves featuring our output. 

Project 388: Watercolor striped thank you cards

I had a great playdate with Claire over the Christmas break and I was keen to try out a few different techniques and things I had seen on Pinterest. One thing I saw a lot of was striped background using blending or watercolours. I decided to put my own twist on it with two different cards.

The headline features the sweetest little french bulldog that Claire gave me that I stamped, die cut and then colored with ProMarkers. The background is watercolored paper cut down to a square and I used Salty Ocean with an aqua brush to get messy stripes. Yes I intended the messiness!

This one was modelled a bit after this card, as I liked her stripes, feature image with little white and black dots and stitched border. I opted for a hand-drawn stitching and didn't really mask off the stripes, instead I just laid down a piece of card to get a rough mask rather than anything precise. I wasn't in the mood for precision! The image is a Little Claire flower that I have had for years and is colored with ProMarkers as well. I love the navy and yellow combo, so cheerful. 

Project 387: A dragon for a 5 year old

My friend's little boy is turning 5 (I can't believe this) and I wanted to make him a special card as he's my little buddy and I love making him cards.

I saw the sketch at Sketch Saturday and thought it would be perfect, and I was especially inspired by Claire's post when I saw that Bugaboo was the sponsor. Loving Bugaboo as much as I do I just had to use one of their great images.

I chose the awesome birthday dragon and colored him with ProMarkers. As my little dragon features a hat (as does my sentiment) I thought I would also enter the I <3 ProMarker challenge as well.  I cut him to the shape to match the sketch and then chose some fun papers to match. The background paper features an embossing folder from Sizzix and the spotted paper is a scrap from American Crafts.

The sentiment is a gift from Claire years ago...I can't remember who it is by. I use it a lot with kid cards because it is so fun and works great with the Bugaboo style for little party hats! The little blingy number is from the pound store - I love these glitter numbers. It is so cheerful and fun I know my little friend is going to love it!

Project 386: A nature-inspired thank you

I wanted to have a play with a new stamp set from Creative Stamping magazine and when I saw the layout at Freshly Made Sketches I thought it would work really well.

I started by heat embossing the image on a piece of card and then used Iced Spruce Distress ink to blend around it, with a touch of Mowed Lawn at the edges. I added a sentiment from the set but the edges bled a bit so I went over it with a felt tip pen.Oops.

I added a thick black frame around the image and then a black and white geometric scrap that I have had for ages on my desk - I love the pattern and didn't want to bin it but it's a bit tricky to use. I used a textured green background paper from Trader Jane by Recollections and tiny little black seed pearls to give it an accent. All in all I'm happy with it, especially as I got to do it while on a playdate with Claire!