Ink Splodge Butterflies

I saw a lovely card (by Lynn Weiss) on Pinterest recently using a water colour background technique so I thought I'd have a go at making one too.  I created the background by inking an acrylic block in some pinks, purples and neutrals and then sprayed it with water so that the colours began to run around a bit.  I masked around the area of the card blank I wanted to colour, then pressed my acrylic block down to make the background.  I stamped the butterflies while the background was still a bit damp so that the edges blurred a bit, then overstamped in slightly different colours when it had all dried to get a more defined image.
I'm entering this into 365 Cards - day 205 - Butterfly

Ribbon Girl Giveaway

The Ribbon Girl have a £10 voucher to give away this week - please choose me!

Blimey, hexagons are everywhere right now aren't they!
I started out with the sketch from Sketch Saturday for this card and thought I'd tie it in with the Friday Mashup's challenge to use the Brickwall technique.  Talk about pushing my boundaries! .... I (eventually) found a protractor so that I could draw a hexagon template (and was amazed I could remember that hexagons were something to do with 60 degrees!) before fiddling about to make my template the right size for the card.
My background hexagons started off as plain white paper, which I sponged over with pink, yellow, misty buff and light green inks, then stamped with a script stamp over the top in a neutral grey/brown colour before adding my swirl in black, cutting them out and adding the two black gems.
It's a bit tricky to see, but the sentiment was stamped in black, and then I used a glue and foil kit I purchased recently at a craft show to make it all smooth and shiney.
Then just added the butterfly for balance.

Cupcake Thank-you

Am entering this card into two challenges-
The Shabby Tea Room #170 Sweet as Sugar
365 Cards Day 161 - Pick 3
Picking 3 new things to use for the 365Cards challenge was a bit of a toughie, but in the end I opened up the beautiful lace ribbons that I've recently acquired, the pack of little doilies that have been sitting in my stash for a while and a pack of vintage style papers.  And now I'm amazed that I've never used any of these before!

Swirly Fathers Day Cards

I'm not one for making more than one card at a time usually but as it's nearly Father's Day and I have 3 cards to make (Dad, Father-in-Law, and husband from the children) I had a bit of a craft session today and got them all done.

I started out with the sketch from Retro Sketches this week 

I turned it on it's side, bought the banner to the front and swapped the twine for a swirl and ended up with this.

I thought for the next one I'd swap the grey card for some tissue paper that I'd stamped some scribbled polka dots on in some green, grey and light blue inks.  And rather than doodle around the die cut swirls I placed a second die cut in white underneath to make them stand out a bit more.  I also added an extra layer of grey card as a background to the blue paper.

And finally for the third one I added an extra die cut swirl and changed the colour of the banner

I'm also entering this into

Kaboodle Doodles #175 For your favourite guy

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Hello Boys

Top Tip Tuesday #103 Masculine

Anything Goes Challenge #94 Father's Day

City Crafter #163 All About Him

Man enough for pink

As soon as I saw this sketch over at Hand Stamped Sentiments I felt inspired, and immediately wanted to use my background chevron stamp.

I stamped the paler blue, pink and red stripes onto tissue paper, and stuck them over the chevrons before adding the sentiment

Chalkboard Birthday card

Just want to say a big thank you to Amy at the Friday Mashup for showing us the chalkboard technique - I'd never seen it before and now I'm hooked.... I've made four cards in the last few days using it!
Needless to say I'm entering it into their weekly challenge:


1. Make a project using the "Chalkboard Technique".

2. Or Make a project using " 2 or more Stamp Sets".

3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a project using "2 or more Stamp Sets with the Chalkboard Technique".

I've used 2 different stamp sets (the alphabet one and the flowery one)

I heat embossed the flowery stamp onto the back of a cereal packet (homemade chipboard!) in a shimmering red/pink and carefully cut out a few of the flowers that I stuck over the top of the white stamped image.

Am also entering this into CAS-ual Fridays #94: chipboard