LIM week 178 - recycle

I've had this stamp for a few months and decided she would fit with the sentiment on this gift tag from Monsoon. The tag was on the clothing in store last year to celebrate their 40th year, I saved it and this is the second one I have used on a card. Below is how the tag started out and the reverse, which I only covered the blurb as the other elements looked too nice to cover.

I paper pieced using a SU snippet, colouring some of the detailing with a duck egg promarker, then added a SU sentiment from the postage collection. SU punched hearts and a little seam binding complete the card, all mounted onto some SU cardstock.

This card is for the challenge on Less is More this week which is to use a recycled item on your card.

I'm also entering it into

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where "anything goes"

and Allsorts - Summer girls.

Finally I'm sharing a photo of a circumzenithal arc - an upside down rainbow. It's not really a rainbow as it is do with ice and not rain - but anyhoo - someone at work took it on Wednesday evening and it is apparently very rare. Would have loved to have seen it myself.

June Rudolph Day

It's time for Rudolph Day over on Sarn's blog where two Christmas cards are required each month. I've done four because I was playing with this sheet of Kanban toppers and couldn't bear to leave any of it not used. I've had it for a while because I really like all the little houses, but really I need to use this stuff!

The first card uses some stamps with the topper. I embossed the reindeer which is a retired SU stamp.

The second card I added some snowfall acetate over the topper and backed them with some "sky" paper. For the third and fourth card I used a corner stamp from Clarity which I have had for ages and some pink sequin snowflakes. 

Just noticed that this is my 1111 post - spooky!

Dies with Jenny @ CD Sunday

I've been waiting for the latest CDrom to be released by Ooh La La and it's a great resource. This is the first card I've made with it - it's called Say it with Words and the art work by Marie Rayner and sentiments are beautiful. For this card I printed out a topper and backing paper and cut with the same die layering one over the other. I then cut some flowers, leaves and a butterfly. The backing paper is from the cdrom too with the faux curled back edge. The little postcard is from the cdrom and I stamped it with two sentiments.

I decided to decorate the inside with one of the inserts, adding a tag for the sentiment scaled down and also the little stack of images to the corner of the blank area.
I'm entering this card into CD Sunday challenge where Jenny wants to see dies.

LIM week 177 - watercolour

 The challenge on Less is More this week is to use watercolours. I decided to use a technique that I've seem Ali Reeve do, which is to daub your stamp with inks, spray with water and stamp. You get a really messy image, but then you ink up the same stamp with one ink and stamp over the image. I was really impressed I managed to get this Chocolate Baroque Charles Rennie Mackintosh inspired stamp in the right place as it is not a clear stamp. I then sprayed the smaller rose stamps with water and stamped and dragged the die cut through some watercolour on my splodgemat. I used watercolour paper and then cut around to mount on the card.
I bought both sets of these inspired stamps a while ago and saw Kathy the GDT had used a CRM inspired stamp, so that prompted me to get mine out. They don't come with any sentiments so I used a free font I got ages ago called Hill House.
I then had an idea that it might look good with silver embossing over the top. So same stamp smaller card and this time I didn't quite get to line it up as well, but I think it looks alright, well it does in real life, tricky to photograph. I used meltdust paper and powder for the sentiment on this one, but realised I only had stardust powder and not silver, so its just a bit glittery.

Well I went for my first mammogram today and it was not as painful as I had been led to believe, just a little discomfort and took a while longer as someone was training, which I was happy to agree to as we all have to learn.

only Men Allowed

I love shopping at Country view crafts and I've just found out that they have a Country View challenge blog. The current challenge is "only men allowed".
For my card I used Pink Petticoat digi papers and sentiment and a digi image from (actually I'm not sure where its from so if someone knows, please tell me!) which I colourised in My Craft studio. I then spritzed the whole card with some inks to give it an even more manly look! (I hope).
I was going to post this card yesterday but woke up with an awful headache and being sick for a few hours. Luckily I felt better today and was able to go out to the lunch we had booked and spend time in the sunshine, so this post is rather late in the day.

White, Gold and blue

I've taken inspiration from a few challenges for this card. It all started with Winter Wonderland who want to see a Christmas Scene, coupled with A Day for Daisies who want to see stitching faux or real. So I used this snowy scene digi from delicious doodles and then also imposed ADFD digi over the image by cutting it out in MCS.  My gold faux stitching is around the edges of the mount. I then decided to use the colour scheme from the Allsorts challenge this week which is white and gold and one other colour. So for my other colour I chose blue, as I had already colourised the snowy scene with blue. I used promarkers to colour the digi.
One of the ivy dies is from Tattered lace and the other one I won in the playground and is a Joanna Sheen die. The skates and large flower die are from Marianne. I have so been wanting to use those skates since I got them, I just love them. I did have ice skating lessons when I was younger, all before Torvill and Dean and the Nottingham ice skating boom, but I never made it past a couple of lessons, too scared! I do love to watch ice skating though.
I can honestly say I would never have come up with this card without these challenges, and I just love what they all inspired me to create.

Monte Carlo or bust

Some of you may know that I love Pinterest, love fashion and love entering competions. So this post is combining all of those with the Board I created over on Pinterest for the Chic Living competition to win £1000 John Lewis vouchers in association with Cunard and their Mediterranean cruises.

My board is Monte Carlo, Monaco. It's somewhere I've never been but it conjures up for me one of the great chic icons Princess Grace and of course Coco Chanel had a fabulous villa built close by. The casino, the motor racing, opulent houses and hotels and the wonderful art deco era. So my board is a homage to all of those.

Follow Linby's board Cunard Mediterranean Competition on Pinterest.

LIM week 176 - off the edge - one layer

My second post of the day! I've got a crafty day off today and I mean to craft all day. Please scroll down for my mid month reminder card for Penny Black & More.

It's one layer week at Less is More with the challenge of "off the edge". I've been looking for a digital image since Saturday that would have been perfect, but I can't find it, so instead I have gone with this ninja from Bugaboo. I imported him into My Craft Studio and turned him around a few times so it looks like he is tumbling across the card.
I had a sentiment of "It's Ninja your birthday" but for some reason it didn't all print out! So, I got a sentiment from Waltzingmouse and stamped that on instead.

Thanks for showcasing my card for more than one stamp, at LIM last week ladies - I really appreciate it.

mid month reminder for Penny Black & More - your fav stamp or craft item

Just a quick reminder that our challenge over on Penny Black & More this month is your fav stamp or craft item. For my DT card I used a Marianne Camera die and the mice from the Love London stamp set, the small mouse and dog from Critters party. The sentiment is from Flonz. I really enjoyed making this card and it is meant to look like the dog is about to press the shutter for the photo, while the mice hold the camera steady!

June challenge with Paper Mill Direct

There's a great challenge over at Papermill Direct to win a box of their card in their June challenge. The theme of the challenge is the month of June. By coincidence I was asked to make a card for someone who likes horse racing, so out came this Sheena Douglass stamp set and the sentiment is from one of her other sets, but I thought it went well with the images and of course is for Royal Ascot which is in June.

Darnell's NBUS challenge

Darnell has a great challenge on her blog at the moment, you just need to use NBUS (never before used schtuff) and if you can use the theme friendship. She's also got some very generous prizes and more being added by the day as we all rush over there to join in. So, why not pop over, she would also like us to visit three other entries, so off to do that now.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about my card. I used a Stamping Bella stamp called Lulu loves Poppies. Now when this was released I was in a being good mood and thought yeah I'll get it some day, only to find I can not get it anywhere! Finally I tracked it down in the good ole USA on ebay and got it new from a seller. So what have I done with her, just sat her on my desk as a must use stamp and so she is a NBUS. So the lesson learned is, if you see it buy it...........

I coloured her with aquamarkers and then broke out some of my Gina K papers and an Anna Griffin sentiment. I inked around the edges of the die cuts to give a little lift to the papers.

Anything goes at Clearly Besotted

I've just bought a couple of dies from the new Clearly Besotted release- it's an apt name as I am beginning to get besotted with these releases. I waited for ages for this Fabulous Fuchsia stamp set to come back in stock. I also bought the die to do the fushias themselves, but I fussy cut the leaf stem. I stamped onto SU Rose red and green cardstock. I had a die cut left over, so I decided to decorate the inside too. I just love fushias so this was a must have set for me (well that is how I am justifying it anyway!).

I'm entering this into the latest Clearly Besotted challenge which is "anything goes".

At the seaside @ CD Sunday plus snippets

The challenge on CD Sunday for the next fortnight is "At the Seaside". I printed off the elements from Debbi Moore's Shabby chic Seaside cdrom. The first card used one of the gorgeous background papers and I didn't want to cover the starfish so I made sure it got seen and then I also added a little diamond sparkle to it and glitter to the sea. The card blank is precut 8x8 from Kanban. The sentiment on the sign is from Hobbyart - I am using this set a lot at the moment. The "Happy thoughts" stamp is from a Hero Arts set.

I had quite a few elements left over from the card, so I then decided to make this card for someone who will shortly be going to live at the seaside, so thought it appropriate. 

'

 Still some snippets left, so onto a third card!

There are still some snippets left so look out for them on a card soon..........

Thanks for the inspiration from CD Sunday - they were fun to make.
As I used up my snippets I am skipping over to the snippets playground to show everyone. I was lucky enough to win the prize of a fantastic Christmas stamp and die last week, Christmas came early!

LIM week 174 - more than one stamp

The challenge on Less is More this week is to use more than one stamp. I've certainly done that with this card, using several of the Hobbyart scene stamps and one of their sentiments to finish it off.

Your fav stamp or craft item at Penny Black & More challenge

It's time for a new challenge at Penny Black & More and this month we'd like to see your favourite stamp (doesn't have to be Penny Black) or your favourite craft item. I've combined both for my DT card, PB1652J Cheesecake wish (just one of many favs really) and Pink Petticoat papers. 
As always we would love you to play along and win some of the fantastic prizes we have on offer, also the chance to be a GDT for a month. Please do come and visit us and see the other DTs wonderful cards. Just remember that we don't allow digis and stamping must be the focal point of your card.