Freestyling with Florals

Well my new Mama Elephant goodies arrived last week... just in the middle of the half-term hols!!!  Luckily I had a chance to play with the Freestyle Florals set yesterday afternoon whilst hubby was out getting soaked with the mutt and the boy was happily watching his fave TV programme ;)

I'm sharing both these cards on my DT blog post today over at Make the Day Special Stamp Store and they were inspired by a few challenges out there in blogland at the moment so I best get them entered.

My first card is for Colour Me, which has a gorgeous pallette this week and just look at the graphic to go with it...Yum!!! It also follows the sketch at Retro Sketches this week too...
                                      

I used distress inks to colour these... they are fast becoming my favourite way of watercolouring because they are so forgiving :)


My next project is for the Monochrome challenge at CASology....apologies if you don't like the colour green!!...Lol

Not as happy with this but it's okay... tried using proper watercolours and there's definitely a difference in the way you use them!! Love the vellum sentiment strip though, it softens the edge between the florals and the block of colour :)
                                                           

Well that's all from me... need to get the washing out whilst the sun is shining and before the showers arrive later!!
Jenny x

Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge - Designer Drafts Week

It's Sunday so it must be Paper Smooches Sparks challenge time... 

two weeks away and it feels so much longer!!! 

This week is a sketch challenge and I reckon you're going 

to have some fun with it.... don't you always!!??

....flip it, turn it or even shrink it, which is just what I decided to do.....

That large panel in the sketch was a bit scary for me so I scaled it down and turned it into an aperture using the inner square from the Quote tag dies.... I covered the little speech bubble bit up with the kite from Sunny Side up  :)

It was good to do some colouring and fussy cutting again, feels like a while since I have!! The clouds have simple shading and the sentiment is from We Totally Click... it seemed a good match for the brightly coloured kite :)

Here are the links to my teamies playing along, please go and check out their awesome cards too..

Alice, Lisa, Erin, Jenny, Savannah

All the details on how to play are on the Sparks blog here, hope to see you in the gallery :0)

... and in case you didn't know, if you live in the UK you can find Paper Smooches stamps at Make the Day Special Stamp Store :)
Jenny x

Love Ewe!!

I'm popping by today with a card for the Less is More Challenge blog, Chrissie and the ladies are celebrating the blogs 4th birthday and whilst I don't seem to have time to play along as much as I'd like I wanted to join in for this milestone challenge :0)
As always, the beginning of the month is a colour challenge and this week it's.... PINK & GREY :)

Let me introduce you to Seamus... he's from a new-to-me stamp set by Janes Doodles, he's the cutest sheep around and full of a lot of love too :0) He comes with a few sentiments but I thought, seeing as his arms/legs were outstretched, he could simply hold his own sentiment banner.... I had to cut the heart and letters for him though!!

To make the soft grey background I stamped and masked his white fleecy bits *wink* ...before using a Warm Grey Promarker in the Tim Holtz Spritzer tool... it makes such a soft background which I couldn't achieve with inking.

I'm also popping him in over at CASology this week for the LOVE cue word... gotta love when these challenges just work together :)
                                                          
Congrats to Chrissie and the DT ladies past and present and here's to many more anniversaries!!

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Potted Plants

I've been playing some more with my Planted stamp set by Waffleflower for my DT blog post today, over at Make the Day Special Stamp Store :0)

This time I used the solid images and used extra inking techniques to give depth to the plants and pots....

To add a bit of variety to the leaf and plant shapes I borrowed the spriglet in the red pot from the Botanicals 2 stamp set by Paper Smooches... it has a kind of succulent quality to it doncha' think ;)

Funnily enough, I tuned into the Waffleflower blog today and saw the inspiration photo for their new challenge.... my card is sooo close and, apart from the addition of the red pot, the colours are very similar too so I thought I'd  pop it in the gallery :0)
See what I mean...
                                            

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

In the Window Frame

Hello again... I've another card to share for a challenge!!
It's been a while since I blogged quite so many cards but this one came together late last night when I was supposed to be clearing my crafting desk *wink*..... anyone else do that???

The elements for this card were just sitting on the desk and the CAS(e) this Sketch challenge came to mind...

Earlier I had been experimenting with watercolouring the plant on a scrap of card and trimmed it out, I thought it would look good sat on the frame so I took inspiration from Therese and her  fabulous wintery card here, and turned it into a window with two thin strips of card. I placed vellum behind to mute the bkgd stripes and embossed my small sentiment inside one of the window panels... I'd love to tell you I planned it to be above a dark stripe but alas.. it was a happy accident ;)

                                              
Really love the sketch this week so I'm glad I had a chance to play along ... only a couple of hours left til the gallery closes so I best get over there and then I still have a desk to tidy!!!

Stash used: Planted - Waffleflower stamps
                  Wide Stripes bkgd - Simon Says Stamp
                  Party Animal - Avery Elle (sentiment)
                   Die cut frames - MFT Dienamics

Jenny x

Hugs & Kisses

It may sound strange but this is a card I've been wanting to make for ages, ever since I bought the word dies... I was waiting until I found a good lipstick mark stamp and luckily Lil Inkers has obliged in their latest release :)

There are some fab luuuurve themed challenges on the go at the moment... Addicted to CAS and Curtain Call to name but a few and my card fits these the best I reckon :0)

                                       
I started by stamping the lips in pigment ink before diecutting the words and stacking numerous layers behind them... some of which are in pink card to just give that hint of colour.
Yay it actually turned out the way I imagined which is always a bonus... that smoochy mark looks sooo realistic too :)

                                                    
Thanks to Anita who pointed out this would fit in over at CASology too... yeah, HOT lips :0)

Stash used:
Smooches - Lil Inkers
Lots of love - Dienamics Dies
Cherry pigment ink - Avery Elle

Jenny x

Little One

It's time for a new challenge over at Make the Day Special Stamp Store and my DT card fits in with the Little Ones theme over at Less is More this week too......

Here's the sketch we have for you this month.... I have gone with a CAS version by shrinking the elements down for my card :0)

It's almost a one layer card with the panels sponged directly onto the card front using a mask and the little chick and balloon popped up on foam dots. To make the balloon string behave I put a tiny dot of Matte Medium onto my finger and pulled the thread through it..... if you use a small amount it doesn't make it too sticky but allows you to shape the thread how you want it :)

I hope you can join in with our Sketch challenge this month over at the MtDS blog, you can find the details and linky here

I'm also popping this into CASology's Birthday theme challenge this week..

                                                     

Stamps used : Just Hatched-Mama Elephant, Strictly Sentiments 1-Wplus9

Dies used : Balloon dies-Paper Smooches

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Paper Smooches Sparks - Anything Goes

 Hello, I have a card to share with you for the new Paper Smooches Sparks challenge and this week it's Anything Goes...

...it's another punny card.... I just cant help myself when I'm using my PS stamps especially when the sentiments are given to you in a stamp set!!!

I'm not sure if this was the intended use for this phrase from the Happy Birthday stamp set but the chilli pepper in Southwestern Charm came to my mind first of all :) What a great 'tongue in cheek' Valentines card!!! 

I trimmed out the two red chillis (which look more orange on the photo!!... grrr ) and raised them up for my focal point.... a good coating of glossy accents gives them a nice smooth sheen too but, because of the camera angle, you'll have to take my word for that I'm afraid ;)

Here are the links to my teamies, please go and check out there fab cards too

Alice

Lisa

Erin

Jenny

Savannah

We look forward to seeing your creations in the gallery :)
Jenny x