BE Inspired #10 and Awesome Blossom Winner...

Time for this fortnights The Alley Way Stamps BE Inspired Challenge!  I was inspired by the gorgeous colours and patterns on these cushions.  Black and teal are not normally go-to colours for a Father's Day card - but I love how striking this turned out.  I just love the Couture Creations Royalty embossing folder, especially when used with Cor'dinations Cardstock and sanded to reveal the teal layer underneath.  The stacking Couture Creations Victorian Square dies look so different when placed on this angle, creating a perfect space for my Father's Day sentiment, created using The Alley Way Stamps Touchdown, Alphabet Soup and Christmas Magic.

How will you BE Inspired with The Alley Way Stamps?  You have until September 13th

Just in case you thought I forgot ;) the winner of their very own Awesome Blossom set is...

#17 AJ Reddicliffe I love your card, it would brighten anyone's day. :) 

(Please email we with your details AJ!)

and HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all the Aussie Dad's!

TAWS Blog Hop... and an EXTRA chance to WIN!

The Alley Way September Release Blog Hop

One person will win ALL 3 NEW SETS!!

YEP!! So if you want that person to be you... all you have to do is comment on the hop! 

You have until Aug 30st 9:30 PM TAWS time 
(aka August 31st 2:30PM EST Australia) to leave comments.

Here are the DT Blogs to visit:

Alison

Annette

Arielle

Audrey

Barb

Danielle

Kim

Lyndal

Tracy

The Alley Way Stamps Blog

Loving the new The Alley Way Stamps Awesome Blossom set!  To create the background I used one of the flower images randomly stamped watercolour paper in Versamark Watermark ink then heat embossed in clear, then randomly stamped with Versamark Watermark ink and Stampin' Up Concord Crush, before swiping the entire background with Distress Ink Shaded Lilac.  The Awesome Blossom butterfly was clear embossed onto Concord Crush cardstock, then fussy cut.  I created the sentiment with a combination of The Alley Way Design Christmas Magic, Chatterbox and Alphabet Soup, heat embossed in Zing Pewter, together with some alphas from my stash.  Inspired by the purple hues at Dynamic Duos.

To celebrate The Alley Way Stamps being available directly in Australia either through Scrapbook Boutique or The Stamp Spot you have an EXTRA chance to win, if you leave a comment here you could win your very own Awesome Blossom set.

TAWS Sneak Peek Day 2... Your Chance to Win Stamps!!!

I can't believe it's almost September already, and that means Sneak Peek time for TAWS!  Don't forget to drop by the The Alley Way Stamps blog for your chance to win one of the September sets!

Frankly I just {heart} this little monster!  I love that stamped stitching too!!  Just to show the versatility of these sets I have created a Valentine's Day card using two The Alley Way Stamps new September release sets - Ghoul-Friend and Touchdown. inspired by this gorgeous Retro Sketch by Danielle.  The hearts were created using Heidi Swapp chipboard hearts as a template.  Franky is coloured using Copics YG03 Yellow Green, YG17 Grass Green, YG67 Moss, Neutral Greys N0. N3 and N5 and R59 Cardinal.

A Moxie Fabulous Fall...

I fell in love with this amazing colour combo in this fortnights Tuesday Trigger Autumn Awaits, and created my Fabulous Fall card using the Clean and Simple Sketch combined with the Moxie Fab Repetition Challenge and the Moxie Fab Movement Challenge.  I altered the sketch to a square to reflect the shape of the headscarf, and framed the card in striking green to reflect the glasses frames.  Using watercolour paper I generously swiped with Distress Ink Spiced Marmalade and Squeezed Lemonade, then spritzed with Dylusions Squeezed Orange (anyone else feeling thirsty lol!!) and Perfect Pearl Mist Sunflower Sparkle to create a background over which I repeatedly stamped with the Tattered Angels leaf, then fussy cut and pop-dotted onto white cardstock.  The falling leaves are placed to lead your eyes in an anti-clockwise direction around the Fabulous Fall sentiment, from Autumn Leaves of course!

Why don't you give the Moxie Fab Challenges a go too!

You Rule my {Heart}...

As soon as I saw the little crowns and hearts on this weeks Play Date Cafe, I immediately thought of this little Party Animal lion from The Alley Ways Stamps, and how perfect he would be as the ruler of my heart!  Inspired by this weeks cool Retro Sketch, I paper pieced my lion - using a mix of papers from MME, Basic Grey, Kaisercraft and SEI, and pop-dotted the layers, perfect for the Paper Players Paper Piecing Challenge (try saying that quickly LOL!)  The gorgeous ruler ribbon is from Little Yellow Bicycle, and the crown and heart are chipboard from Heidi Swapp, inked in silver to give them some added shine.

Hope your day has some added shine too!

Herd You're Moovin'...

Inspired by this weeks fab Retro Sketch, and the Simon Says Stamp Animal Antics and Little Red Wagons Dog Days of Summer, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to use this gorgeous mini moo cow from The Alley Way Stamps Cover-Ups - the perfect size to create a herd!  Thank goodness TAWS stamps are so versatile too - I was able to stamp my sentiment even though my Alphabet Soup is playing hide-and-seek, by using "heard you're" from Kitchen Gadgets, "Moov" from Get MOOvin, and "in" from Chatterbox.

Dog Days of Summer

Animal Antics

2B or Not 2B...

Back to School

The Play Date Cafe colours this week just reminded me of the old yellow grey lead pencils we used to use for school, which fitted right in with this weeks Back to School Challenge at The Pink Elephant - with a bit of teacher humour - and turned this Freshly Made sketch on its head!  If you don't use 2B pencils in your corner of the world, this card will probably make no sense what-so-ever LOL!

Stamped the pencils with Paper Smooches Smarty Pants and sentiment using Alphadots.  Papers are a mix of MME School Daze and October Afternoon.  Added Copics N3 Neutral Gray and YR18 Sanguine to make the pencils.  The card base is Bazill A4 cardstock - a fantastic weight cardstock, perfectly smooth for cards :)

We've been back to school for a few weeks now - finally looking forward to some warmer weather!

Birthday Balloons...

With a such colourful party food - how could you not BE Inspired!  I had so much fun making these balloon letters for this kiddies "Happy Birthday" card, using The Alley Way Stamps Party Animal balloon stamp, cupcake top from Bite Size and ball from Admit One, then hand drawing the bows and string lines, and added Dimensional Magic sheen.  

You have until 30 August to join in the fun and BE Inspired with TAWS images 

for your chance to WIN some FAB stamps!

Created this card to join in the fun with:  

Scrap Creations Kids theme

Paper Pretties Square card

Creative Craft Challenges Just a sentiment

A CAS-ual Play Date, More or Less...

Inspired by the Less is More One Layer Card, Fur or Feathers, This gorgeous Play Date Cafe colour palette and CAS-ual Fridays Square Cards, I thought I'd try masking and sponging a sunset behind this gorgeous The Alley Ways Stamps Tropic Topic flamingo.

I stamped the flamingo on watercolour paper in Versamark Watermark Ink then heat embossed in Zing Pewter.  Next I stamped the flamingo on a scrap piece of cardstock and cut around it to use as a mask, and  placed the flamingo mask over the stamped image and secured with masking tape.  I negative die-cut a circle from scrap cardstock to use as the mask for the sun, and positioned this on my stamped watercolour paper before also securing with masking tape.  I shaded the sun by starting at the top by dabbing Distress Ink Squeezed Lemonade around the top edges then working my way to around two thirds down the circle, Next I dabbed Distress Ink Spiced Marmalade, starting at the bottom of the circle around the edges and working my way up, gradually getting lighter to about one third from the top of the circle.  I then gently blended the orange into the yellow and the yellow into the orange until I was happy with the effect.  I carefully removed the circle mask and the flamingo mask, before using a fine watercolour pen and Distress Ink Picked Raspberry to colour the flamingo, with the deepest shades low and adding a little water to highlight the top of his wing.  Happy with the results of my first attempt at blended masking!

Love how the flamingo looks like a 2 and 1 intertwined. Hope my niece enjoys her 21st card!

I love a long read, bookmark card...

Loved the colours this week at Color Throwdown and the sketch from Freshly Made, perfect for a Bookmark Card to encourage my youngest to complete his Reading Challenge - he's only got one or two books to go, but every bit of encouragement helps!!  I designed the card so that the bookmark/tag tucks in behind the button, and can be easily removed as needed.  I added paper to the back of the middle section of the Basic Grey flourish sticker so it would not stick to the bookmark.

Papers are a combination of Basic Grey, Echo Park, Crate Paper and Jenni Bowlin, stamped with The Alley Way Stamps funky little Party Animal giraffe, with the sentiment made using Alphabet Soup, Hey Cupcake and Party Animal, and punched with EK Success scalloped border.  Buttons are Fancy Pants Off to School and a Prima heart button.

Also playing along at:

Cute Card Thursday  - Tag You're It
Raise the Bar - Back to School

Hope you have the opportunity to enjoy a long read soon!

You're so QWERTY... Just my TYPE!

TYPE HYPE! Tuesday Trigger

I couldn't resist this fortnights Type Hype! Tuesday Trigger.  Thought it was perfect for a nostalgically romantic card!  Inside the card reads ...Just my TYPE!

I used Glitz Dance in Sunshine Paper Layers as the basis for my card - LOVE the old typewriter, faded text and love heart typewriter keys.  I added the sentiment using My Favourite Things Typewriter Alphabet, stamped in Versamark Watermark Ink and heat embossed with Zing Pewter, to create raised metallic letters - reminiscent of the old typewriter stalk letters. Mounted the QWERTY letters on foam tape in the centre of these cool pearl sheen Fancy Pants Off to School buttons.  Matted the sheet on red cardstock to reflect the red typewriter ribbon - and romance!  Backed with 7 Gypsies paper which I altered with Distress Ink in Old Paper to create a more old-fashioned, QWERTY feel LOL! 

Hope this weekend is just your type too!

More or Less CAS-ual...

I thought I'd share a bit of the thinking process that went into the creation of this card :)  Yes, I do think before I craft - sometimes too much perhaps LOL!  

I thought I'd combine this weeks Less is More Blue & Green challenge with CAS-ual Fridays On Cloud 9.   There are soooo many possibilities for cards to create that sometimes I find it easier to narrow down the possibilities by combining challenges.  As green and blue are harmonious colours, they are excellent candidates for creating layered inky backgrounds.  I sprayed my watercolour paper with Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise, Fresh Lime, and added a bit of sparkle by overspraying with Glimmermist Denim.  For me a negative die-cut is perfect for a "Miss You" card - because in order to create a negative die cut, something has to be missing!  I cut the circle from my sprayed watercolour paper to represent the sun, and then negative die cut my Marianne Design bird and branch and pop-dotted it onto my white cardstock.  The Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler "Miss You" was the right size for balance and it's in a casual font which suits the bright colours.  Next I matched the cardstock base colour to the darkest shade of blue in my circle to repeat and anchor it.  I wanted to soften the edges of the card to reflect the circle shape, so I used a corner rounder.  I left the bottom right corner squared off to serve the dual purpose of helping to focus on the sentiment, and the corner was missed - as is the recipient!

 What thoughts inspire your creations?!?

Play Date Cafe Christmas...

 

My mojo decided to run away to join the circus today, and the only way I could try to tempt it back was with some chocolate cupcakes!  Hey the sign says "Do what you love/love what you do", and I do love chocolate cupcakes, almost as much as I love sticky date cupcakes ;)

I saw this weeks inspiration photo and colours at The Play Date Cafe, and just kept thinking of Christmas treats, so I made some festive Christmas decorations - the best thing is they are re-usable (except the cupcakes of course LOL!)  The cute sentiment, holly and reindeer are from The Alley Way Stamps Fa-la-la and Christmas Magic.  Papers used are cardstock, SEI and Echo Park papers, together with washi tape from a variety of sources including Typo, and jute from The Ribbon Carousel.  For each decoration I punched out two scalloped circles and sandwiched the bamboo skewers in between them, you could add decoration on the back too to create an edible centrepiece for your Christmas table.

My kids and hubby really enjoyed this project too!

The after party LOL!

TAWS BE Inspired, Have a Ball...

Loved the colours in this fortnights TAWS Be Inspired Challenge #8 - after all, teal is my favourite, and red is not far behind, and I ran with circles and the carnival theme using The Alley Ways Admit One and Alphabet Soup, to create this cute birthday card.  Paper pieced parts of the gorgeous clown, and die cut and punched a series of circles using Echo Park and October Afternoon papers.  Coloured the rest of the clown using Copics E13 Light Suntan, Y17 Golden Yellow, R27 Cadmium Red and BG 18 Teal Blue.  Pop dotted the clown and his starry juggling balls too.

Come join in the fun, you have until August 17 to play along!

Also playing along with:
The Pink Elephant Sketch
The Paper Players Tic Tac Toe - Circles / Birthday / Favourite Colour

 

Don't Worry...

 

I haven't really attempted one layer cards, so I thought I'd challenge myself to create a one for the Less is More sketch this week for my "Bee Happy" card.  I created the hexagon background using the Crafter's Workshop Mini Punchinella Template and Scattered Straw and Wild Honey Distress Ink, overstamped the Stampendous Buzzin Blooms in Momento Black Ink then used a water brush to highlight the flowers and bee in Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink, before adding the stamped sentiment and drawing in the black borders and bee trail, finally adding glossy highlights to the flowers and bee using Dimensional Magic - I love how it makes them look like amber.  Bee-cause you can see them in the sky I'm linking this up to CAS-ual Fridays On Cloud 9 too!

Hope you will "Bee Happy" this weekend!