Splish Splash

Hi all.

A bonus post for you today as the delightful folks at Our Creative Corner have another challenge that appealed to me. There is something very magical about Black and White. This week's challenge is just that....black and white with a splash of colour. You can see the details here.

I am a closet music nut, Some time back at a Stitches and Craft show I made a purchase (somewhat of an impulse nature) of a treble clef and some modified sheet music. Alas...the sheet music stamp has been used but the treble clef remained neglected....until now. This is my challenge card.....

It was a lot easier in my head to get this card right than it was in practice!!!! I used my Nesties - Labels 4, but the one I wanted to use was ever so slightly too small, and the image on the largest one had too much white! Solution - I cut off the last "bumps" on the white label and did the same for the red one, I then taped the red one so that it fitted the white frame. Let me just say it was MUCH easier on the large label than the sentiment one.

The other trick was to find a sentiment to fit the label. i ended up using my Stamp and Write Markers to colour in the "Wish". OK result I think....if you don't look too closely. The DP has a very weathered and worn look to it which contrasted my splash of colour too.

I love the texture of the treble clef. I really should have dragged it out sooner.

Thanks for dropping by. Stop over at OCC and give the challenge a go. There are already some awesome entries. I also must sincerely thank Tui. She gave me the "permission" I needed to get off my backside and enter this one.

Stuff Used:
CS:(SU) Basic Black, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, 7gypsies - Paddington Paper - Kilburn #19359.
Ink: (SU) Cherry Cobbler, SWM in Bsic Black 
Stamps: Hero Arts Clings - Musical Clef (CG279), TCM - Butterfly Kisses (the "wish" sentiment)
Other bits: Nestabilities Labels Four, Dimensionals

Lynda xx

Pumpkin Mash!!!!

Hi all.

I thought I would visit Our Creative Corner again and see if I could do another one of their challenges. This time around it is Pumpkin/Pumpkin Pie Challenge. Thanksgiving is approaching in the USA, so it is to use a pumpkin in your design, or the colour Pumpkin Pie. Either was going to be a challenge for me, because it is a colour I have, but rarely use. Due to my procrastination.....I also missed the deadline!!!! Tui was kind enough to advise me that (purely by good luck and fortune) that the card may also fit THIS weeks OCC challange - Gratitude/Thanksgiving. It had this pic to provide the inspiration.....

I hit my CASE file again and stumbled across this gem from Steph. Now it was back from 2009...so just as well I keep lots of things at the ready!! I got my bits and pieces out and came up with this for the challenge.....

This was such a challenge for me....you have NO IDEA!!! I had the card folded already to stamp, and stamped it the incorrect way....so that the card opened backwards. Solution, I cut the front off it, made it still and then can stick it to another card, or perhaps another project down the track. I even managed to find some Pumpking Pie ric-rac I received as blog candy a LONG time ago. Lends itself tot he scallops/soft edges. Again...it also matches the tones or the Thanksgiving picture.

The image panel is done with Botanical Blooms (SAB '09). The flowers are stamped in Pumpkin Pie and leaves in Soft Suede.

Thanks Steph for the inspiration and thanks to the gals at Our Creative Corner for really getting me out of my comfort box and challenging me no end!!

On a separate note, Andrea has reached a mammoth milestone of 200,000 hits. To thank her readers, she passed on this award.

Now I have to forward this to at least 3 friends who have encouraged me and shown me some blog love too.....so thanks so much to....

# Kerry Bunting

# Katie Ridden

# Tui

# Cheryl

# Melissa Davies

# Helen

There are many more. Most of these ladies have already been awarded by Andrea, so please don't think I have forgotten/neglected you. I appreciate all that pass by my blog and take the time to comment.

Thanks for dropping by.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Pumpkin Pie, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla

Ink: (SU) Pumpkin Pie, Soft Suede, Tangerine Tango, Early Espresso

Stamps: (SU) Botanical Blooms (SAB '09), En Francais BGS

Punch: (SU) Scallop Border Punch

Other Bits: SU Pumpkin Pie Ric Rac, SAMJ

Lynda xx

In Colour Inspiration....

Hey all!

Madeline at Ink4U changed things up for the next couple of her challenges and gave us a sketch challenge this time. This is what we were greeted with....

Now one thing I have learnt from challenges....is that that you can flip the sketch and go from there, so I took this one. I just hit one small snag...I got the sentiment and cirle bit mixed up. Anyhow, this was my take on this sketch.....

I apologise for all the brightness and glare, but it has been so hot here and hard to get a pic in decent light without getting fried in the process...LOL!!

I used all the new In Colours on this card. Peach Parfait still remained in its wrapper and CS untouched, so I made this the base. The rest just fell into place from there. The butterfly's wings are all mounted on dimensionals.

Thanks for dropping by.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Peach Parfait, Concord Crush, Pear Pizzaz, Poppy Parade, Blushing Bride, Whisper White

Ink: (SU) Peach Parfait, Concord Crush, Pear Pizzaz, Poppy Parade, Blushing Bride

Stamps: (SU) Great Friend, Vintage Vogue, Warm Words

Other Bits: Dimensionals

Lynda xx



Challenge #3

Over at Inkspirations4U Madeline made special mention of me when she set this next challenge....ie....NO PINK!!! Hence....NO PRESSURE...right??? This callence was not a colour one, but one of a picture....this picture....

I immediately went to the concentric circles and a pattern that I had seen in one of my Punch Art books "Let's Punch IV" by Elizabeth Woolnough. The design is called Watermelon and I have had it in my "ideas vault) for many years but never attempted it. It is a simple concept of concentric circles stuck on top of one another and then cut in half, but then glued arc to arc to give a different geometric feel. This is my challenge card entry.....

Did you notice....NO INK!!!!! I think this makes a great masculine card. The hardest thing to do was to cut the cirles in half (or as close to half as humanly possible), but the effect is rather retro!! Here are the circles close up...

Also, given that the CS was 4 layers thick, it sits up a little. I also reversed the order of the colour combo every second pattern to add a bit more interest. I guess I should thank Madeline for really pushing me with this challenge.

Stuff used:
CS: (SU) Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Mellow Moss, Creamy Caramel
Punches: Carla Craft CP2 3/4", 7/8", 1" circles and CP11G Circle (which is abt 1 1/8")
Other bits: Upkit gold sticker "Happy Birthday"

Lynda xx

Embracing Challenges

I was blessed early in the new year to win a pass to the Inkspirations4U from the delightful Sonia Garbutt. If you are interested in joining this season (Valentine's and Birthday Extraveganza) you can go to her blog and get more detains from there. There are card challenges, colour challenges and projects to share and try...all of which embrace my New Year's Crafting Resolutions!!!

I popped over Monday PM to find the first colour challenge had been posted. Imagine my joy (shock, horror and utter discomfort) when I saw this.......

....a pink toned challenge!!!!

So I procrastinated (mulled, deliberated) over which way I would turn, and by the drive home from work Monday night I had decided that I was going to make the cards with Soft Summer. Havent used it for a long while and it may help ease the pain a little. I laso decided to really give the challenge a GOOD HARD GO and do not 1....but 3 CARDS to make the colours happen.

Card #1.....

I had not tried this border with the slit punch and was very happy with the result. The sentiment was from "Great Friend". The Basic Gray component is only in the outlining of the flowers.

Card #2...

I saw this card on SCS some time back and based it on it. I broke out my Scallop Corner punch for a bit of interest and also stamped the solid image in PIP on the PIP CS to make a self styling DP.

Card #3...

Again....another adaptation of this card I had in my CASE file compliments of Christine Healey.

I cut out an extra flower and popped it up on a dimensional as well as stamping the sentiment in WW Craft Ink and embossing it. All these things I have never done and now I am doing. I guess that is what challenges are all about.

I4U have now posted ANOTHER colour challenge (yeah more pink...LOL) so I am off to tackle that now.

Thanks for enduring this long bonus post. Will be back in the next couple of days with the other colour challenge. I have regular posts scheduled on the "odd days" (I figured blogging every 2 days was enough for all of you!!)

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Rich Razzleberry, Pretty In Pink, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Select Patterns II DP

Ink: (SU) Rich Razzleberry, Pretty In Pink, Basic Gray, Whisper White Craft Ink

Stamps: (SU) Soft Summer, Sincere Salutations, Great Friend, Whimsical Words
Other Bits: (SU) Scallop Trim Corner Punch, Dimensionals, Slit Punch, Non SU Pink Organza Ribbon, Zing White EP

Lynda xx

A Long Overdue Challenge Card

I was fortunate enough to be a part of the wonderful month that was We Stamp For Lara which ran for November. One week we had a Sketch Challenge Which looked like this....

Now I do not have a LOT of confidence when it comes to challenges....as the procrastination factor goes into overdrive, but this time around I had a secondary motivation. My youngest SIL had announced that she was pregnant and I made her the diary here, so the sketch helped me make the card. I did take the obligatory liscence and flip the image.

I loved the DP I used in my very first post on this blog here, as it is a fantastic gender neutral paper. I coupled it with Certainly Celery, Barely Banana and Blush Blossom (confession...the first time I have EVER used this colour in a card!!)

The pram and "Stamp" effect are compliments of a set that was included in my Cuttlebug when i first got it. A die cut does the stamp and this then fits perfectly into the small embossing folder and there you have it....a Baby Carriage Stamp!!!

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Certainly Celery, Barely Banana, Blush Blossom, Pastel Patchwork DP

Ink: (SU) Regal Rose

Stamps: (SU) Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Other Bits: Cuttlebug Stamp die and emboss set

Lynda xx

A challenging re-entry back into Blogging!!!

Hi all!! Yes, it really is me...I am back and posting.

I wish to sincerely thank ALL of my blog friends out there for their care and support over the past month or so. I am so very lucky to have wonderful, supporting and caring friends such as you out there for me and I only hope that one day I may return the care and generoisty you have shown me.

Frequent readers will know of the amazing Andrea and her blog EnchantINK. Well....not so long ago she celebrated a massively improtant milestone. She reached 100,000 hits to her blog...and to celebrate she set a (torture) challenge to those willing to take up the mantle. It can be seen here. In short you had to create a card that reflects the colour/theme/mood/elements of her new look blog. For those of you who are not aware of Andrea (perhaps the 1 or 2 of you out there) here is her new header.....

Now I immediately resorted to my procrastinating ways and set about coming up with something fitting for such an occasion. I also thought about the friendship that Andrea and I have shared since I started reading (hassling) her blog. So I settled on taking the white, purple tones, hearts and sparkle from the header and our friendship (with a touch of green thrown in) and came up with this......

Now always liking to challenge (torture) myself within a challenge I also decided to try some techniques that I don't usually incorporate in my cards. This time around....sponging and embossing (with a heat gun) got the gurnsey. Now I learnt a very, very important lesson doing this card....NEVER make rash decisions very late at night and NEVER emboss after midnight!!!!!

I have done a pansy card before, but with watercolour crayons. This time I SPONGED every single piece of coloured CS in this card (with the exception of the black of course!!) This is the sponging up close. I also used my So Saffron and Black Stamp and Write markers on the small So Saffron heart in the centre of the pansies

As I mentioned previously, I do not heat emboss often. Having said that.....I have had some successes, and this one did (eventually) work out OK. However, whilst I was laying out the card, the cente looked bare so I thought a gold sentiment would be nice. I have gold sticker "Congratulations" that would have been OK, but at 11.45pm on a Thurs night after being inspired by Dirty Dancing (for the umpteenth time), I decided that a heat embossed sentiment was the way to go!!!! With versamark Pen in hand and a test piece of CS successfully embossed.....I was good to go. Embossing buddy (check), Versamarked sentiment (check), Gold EP (check), heat gun (check), heating gold EP (check).....partially melting and melting the gold sticker border with the heat gun......AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRHGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Midnight and I was devestated!!!! I only had the smallest piece of the border left and with very sharp scissors and a lotta good luck, minor surgery was performed on the card!!! I am happy with the way the sentiment embossed....

I also decided to place the outer leaves directly onto the card and then the pansies and 3 of the leaves are up on dimensionals for a 3D look.

Thanks for making it through to the end of this saga ridden card!!! Andrea, I hope you like it!!!!

I will be back to more regular postings over the next couple of weeks. thanks again for being patient. I have some fun projects to share with you all.

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Orchid Opulence, Rich Razzleberry, So Saffron, Old Olive, Basic Black, White Hammer finish trifold card (non SU)

Ink: (SU) Orchid Opulence, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant, So Saffron and Basic Black Stamp and Write markers, V.ersamark Pen

Stamps: (SU) Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Punches: (SU) Brid Punch XL (for all the leaves....they are the bird wings!!), Carla Craft CP2 and CP1 heart punches

Oddments: Gold EP, Upkit Gold flourish sticker, SU Dimensionals, SU Heat Gun

Lynda xx