Seaside Birthday Card

I've made this card for entry into 3 challenges this week.
The Ribbon Reel Challenge Blog #22 Weathered

Hand Stamped Sentiments Technique Challenge #106 Colour Blocking (HSSTC106)

Papertake weekly challenge - Get Krafty

I started off with a square piece of Kraft card onto which I stuck smaller squares of newspaper which had been covered with a layer of white ink.  I sponged two rectangles of blue ink near the top and bottom edges and stamped the waves and the seagull in a darker blue.  The small houses were stamped in white on Kraft card and stuck down, the larger houses were stamped on white card, cut out and stuck on top.
This was then placed onto a cream card base and finished off with some paper twine and a birthday sentiment

The stamp set I used is the Harbour set from Hobby Art.  This was a set that my small son chose when he came to the craft shop with me and that he's used to create some lovely seaside pictures whilst making a right old mess with his inky fingers  :-)
I'm quite glad I've finally had a turn with them now too!

A little bird told me

I've made this card for my friend Sally whose birthday is coming up soon.  I've taken inspiration from two challenges:
Daring Cardmakers - A little bird told us (sponsored by the Ribbon Reel)
DYSU - Challenge #41 Use your scraps

The birds and birdcage are stamps from Woodware.  They were stamped onto scraps of card from my stash.  The birdcage background had a Stampin' Up jumbo wheel (very vintage) rolled over it
The sentiment is a Marion Emberson set, Sunshine and Flowers.
The background patterned paper is one of the many scraps from my stash

Dino Birthday

I made this card for one of my sons friends.  Had to do a bit of research in the many dinosaur books we have here to find a good dinosaur to draw.  Sketched it onto card, inked in some colours then heat embossed with thick clear embossing powder before cutting it out.  Stamped the sentiments with a small set of alphabet stamps and stuck over some geometric shapes cut out of coloured paper.
Am entering this card into two challenges -
Lexi's Creations : a card for a child
Hand Stamped Sentiments : impress us

Starry Birthday

I received a free star stamp with a magazine I bought recently and wanted to make a card with it.
The stars were inked with versamark then embossed with silver and sparkly black powder.  I inked in the background with some pale blues and greens, applying them with a sponge dauber.
The large letters were embossed in silver, then inked over with dark blue, then carefully cut out so that some of the blue background could still be seen.  The birthday part was handwritten.
Am entering this into the Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge: impress us

Birthday card

Have made this card for my Father-in-law's birthday later this month and am entering it into two challenges:
DYSU challenge 36 (Texture)
Anything Goes challenge 49 (Vintage / Shabby Chic).
The papers used were from my stash of magazine freebies, I cut out the shapes and distressed them.
The large letters are die cut using Tim Holtz vintage market alphabet and embossed with gold, the small sentiment is from a Woodware set.
The inspiration for this card came from the blog of a lady whose work I think is amazing - Jo Kill. (http://jo-kill.blogspot.com/)

Thank You cards

For this card I took a plain white 5x7 inch card blank, masked the edges of a square with post-it notes and sponged coloured inks (old olive, yoyo yellow, bashful blue and some pink) in the gap.  The flower is from Stampin' Up's Growing Green set, it was stamped 3 times in chocolate chip .  The flower stems were drawn with a black fine liner, and the sentiment (Stampin' Up Curly Cute) was added in chocolate chip.  Finished the card off by inking the edges with the pink ink.

This card is being entered into the DYSU challenge - Thank You

Thank You cards

Started this card by die-cutting the THANKS with Tim Holtz's Chip Block alphabet using thick card (a breakfast cereal box), then heat embossed it with black sparkle embossing powder.  I spaced the letters out on a scrap piece of paper, cut it to size then used this to create a rectangular mask.  This mask was then centred onto a piece of white paper and swirly stamps were stamped all around in black.  I highlighted some of the swirls with pink watercolour pencils and a black fineliner pen.  This was all then stuck together, and stuck onto a white card blank with a bit of dry embossing to create a border.

This card is being entered into the CAS-ual Fridays -Embossing challenge, and DYSU - Thank You challenge