Lilac Anninversary

I think I had everything out from the craft cupboard this afternoon to make this card, even my very rickety old wobbly edge scissors which haven't seen the light of day for a very long time!

I'm entering this into 3 challenges;
The Shabby Tea Room #125 Sweet Summertime
The Ribbon Reel #33 Button It
Sketch Saturday #219

My 1 year old is currently sitting on my lap 'helping' me post this blog so I won't go into details about how I made it, except to say that I've inked, stamped, die cut, folded, threaded and layered lots of newspaper!




Woo-hoo!  Many thanks to the Shabby Tea Room for awarding this card an honorable mention cup of tea.  You made my day!

Retro Gold

Well I seem to be on a bit of a card making roll at the moment, I've barely packed up all my cutting, sticking and stamping supplies before I feel inspired to get it all out again and make something else.  Maybe it's something to do with the lovely British summer we're (not) having!
I'm entering this card into three challenges -

Less is More, #75, Gold
Retro Sketches #19
Sentimental Sundays, #110, Bingo ( I used pearls, flowers and stamp)

The bottom half of the card is dry embossed with a flower design on plain white paper.
The top half is stamped with a small flowery design in a caramel/gold colour.  I stuck a layer of thin white tissue paper over this to soften it a little.
The stamps are all Stampin' Up (Office Accoutrement and Elementary Elegance).  I heat embossed the large flower in gold, the other stamping was done in gold and just off-gold colours.

There are too many great challenges out there this week to only make one card, so here's my second one which is entering
Mojo Monday 248 - sketch
Papertake - Anything Goes

I loved working with just white the other week so thought I'd give it another go.  I used some white diamond bling card for the big piece, and some plain white thick paper which went through my paper crimper for the smaller piece.  The stamped frame is from a Stampin' Up set I purchased on ebay recently and have used lots.  The scalloped edge is a XCut Dielicious border die, and I made the paper roses after seeing Brenda's beautiful creation for the In Bloom challenge from Allsorts (week 161)

Patterned Paper Flowers

Just when I think that the weekly challenges out there couldn't get any more exciting, four fabilicious ones come along at once!
Clean & Simple Stamping provided the sketch
The Daring Cardmakers dared us to use a minimum of six patterned papers
The Allsorts challenge blog is In Bloom and required the use of  a flower (or bunch)
and the team at Papertake have an anything goes week with the option of using some glitter

So here's my creation which I had lots of fun putting together
The flowers are die cut using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die.  I managed to find six patterned papers in my stash that (sort of) coordinate.  The flower centres are Stampin' Up glitter brads.

Something Shiny

So many great challenges this week I didn't know which one to choose, so I've had a go at combining three.  Unfortunately I wasn't quite quick enough to get it entered into the CASual Fridays one before the deadline.  (Doh - will be better organised next time!)  The two I'm in time for are:
The Shabby Tea Room - Week 119 Diamonds are a girls best friend ( white and silver with pearls / crystals)
Less Is More - Something Shiny

I used a white card blank and heat embossed (in silver) some flowers (from Stampin' Up Growing Green) in a kind of circle shape.  I stuck some shiny diamond gems in the centres of these.
Around the edge of that I used another Stampin Up flower stamp (from the Polka Dot Punches set) which I stamped in silver ink.
I placed a piece of acetate over the top with another Stampin' Up flower (this time from the Printed Petals set) for which I used some white pigment ink.  The acetate is stuck on with some 3D sticky pads to raise it off the card.  I rather like the shadow that the large white flower casts behind it - although it's a bit tricky to see in this photo!
Finally the sentiment was stamped in silver and I've placed some sheer/shiny white ribbon down the side to help disguise my sticky spots.

Less Is More

It now seems that I can't make a card without checking out all the fabulous card challenge websites for ideas and inspiration.  This time it was the Less is More team that got my creative juices flowing with their Use a Flourish challenge.

I used lots of Stampin' Up supplies for this one, including the French Filigree and Seeing Spots stamps and the Curly Cute set for the beginning and end of the sentiment.  I added a few hand-drawn swirls and dots to the card to give my flourish a bit more pizazz.

Can you guess who I might be sending this one to?

Less Is More

I love it when a card just works and I don't feel that it just needs a little bit of something extra.  I made this one for my cousin who's just had a little girl.  The name was stamped with the Forever Friends Hand Script Alphabet stamps (which I've just bought and couldn't wait to use) and the footprints are stamped with some ancient unbranded stamps (which were amongst the first stamps I ever bought).  I stamped in Versamark and used a pink sparkly embossing powder.  And that was that!

I'm entering this into the Less is More week 68 challenge: For a Baby or Child