Tuesday Trigger Poppies...

As soon as I saw this weeks Tuesday Trigger"Plate of Poppies" at Moxie Fab World, I knew I wanted to try out a couple of inky techniques.  Using watercolour paper, I stamped my Stamp-It poppies and Technique Tuesday sentiment in Versamark Dazzle Ink, sprinkled with American Crafts Zing Metallic Pewter embossing powder, and heat set.  I liberally swiped over the poppy image and sentiment with Distress Ink Barn Door (Top), Shabby Shutters (Middle), and Forest Moss (Bottom), then let loose with Glimmermist Gold, til the inks pooled together. I dried off the excess ink with the heat setting gun, which creates an amazing shimmer - that is really difficult to photograph LOL!  Once this was completely dry, I used Dimensional Magic to create a gloss finish over the poppy image. To imitate the plate shape I finished off the card with a circle cut from dark grey cardstock and this gorgeous ribbon from Ribbon Carousel tied with red jute through a Basic Grey button (reflecting the crepe paper poppy centres).  Nothing better than an inky Spring card in the midst of Winter! 

Perfect for playing along with Do You Stack Up Red Challenge , Papertake Weekly Anything Goes with optional Gloss Highlight and Penny Black Allsorts Summer Blooms Challenge too!

 

Be Inspired with Christmas in July The Alley Way...

Guess what!  The Alley Way Stamps BE Inspired Challenge now runs every two weeks!!  Every second Friday you can drop by for another FAB dose of The Alley Ways Be Inspired, and who couldn't help but be inspired by this gorgeous photo montage?! I love the peace sign the little girl in the centre is holding, so I created a Christmas Peace frame.  The outline for "peace" was created by tracing my old Basic Grey monograms onto white cardstock and mounted onto chipboard. The Alley Way Stamps Christmas Magic "Peace" sentiment and the Fa-la-la Christmas Star were stamped all over the word in Versamark Watermark ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. This was then oversprayed using Glimmermist Olive Vine and any excess ink was lightly dabbed off before carefully drying with the heat gun. The chipboard dove was painted in ivory and oversprayed with Glimmermist Gold. The background paper is an old piece from my stash, but you could create your own by stamping and embossing with red tinsel embossing powder.

Hope you are inspired to play along too, there are great stamps as prizes!

This Challenge is open until July 19th.

My Christmas Frame also fits in perfectly with this weeks Papertake Weekly Challenge of 

Anything Goes with the Optional Extra of glittery accents

Cute as a Button Retro Dynamic Duo...

Inspired by this weeks Retro Sketch and Dynamic Duos Kraft & Your Choice (mine would be teal of course!) this "Cute as a Button" card was created by negative die cutting My Favourite Things Tag On onesies from Kaisercraft cardstock, pop-dotted onto Lily Bees Double Dutch teal checks and adding a Kaisercraft teal bow tied with an MME button using the Twinery twine and adding white gel pen stitching, and a sentiment using Prima Tiny Alphabet stickers.

Hope you are enjoying your week!

We are delaying this transmission due to technical difficulties...

I managed to create and photograph my card for this weeks Play Date Cafe Challenge in time, but as hubby is upgrading our computer system at the moment and we keep experiencing "technical difficulties" I had to post it here a bit later than expected LOL! Lucky for me the Allsorts Challenge this week is In Bloom, so I joined in there too :)

I went with something a bit different this week and stamped (I think this was a Carolee's Creations stamp) and coloured with Copics, the sentiment is from Technique Tuesday, paper from Echo Park and a couple of little Kaisercraft gemstones for finishing touches.

A BIG hello to all my newest (and older lol!) followers.  You make me smile!

Happy 4th of July The Alley Way...

Sending Happy 4th July wishes across the waves :)  I spent a couple of years growing up in Boston, so the USA holds a special place in my heart!

Sentiment is The Alley Ways Stamps gorgeous new Alphabet Soup, which includes numbers too, but I couldn't resist stitching the number 4 through the four holes in my button!  I used sparkly bling on my mini flag and doubled-up on the stars with a die-cut and Starry Night embossing folder.  Just remember it's always much easier stamping first and embossing second LOL!

Inspired by Just Us Girls Stars and Sparkles Challenge, CAS-ual Fridays Round and Round and My Sheri Crafts Oh I Love America Challenge.

Freshly Made Colour Throwdown with Ribbon...

Love this teal and coral colour combo at Colour Throwdown this week, combined with this versatile Freshly Made Sketch and The Ribbon Carousel's Paper Piecing Challenge. Gorgeous flamingo stamp from The Alley Ways Tropic Topic with sentiment combined from Tropic Topic, Alphabet Soup and Chatterbox. Papers are a combination of MME, Authentique, Basic Grey, Kaisercraft and Bella, with grosgrain ribbon and Kaisercraft black pearl eye.

Hope you have a fabulous day :)

Scrapbooker's Paradise Guest Designer...

I'm honored to be the guest designer this week at the Playing in Paradise Challenge hosted by Scrapbooker's Paradise. This weeks Playing in Paradise Challenge prompt is this gorgeous watercolour.

Definitely inspired to go arty with the gorgeous strong colours and the curved lines from the inspiration photo - and as teal would have to be my favourite colour, I painted the sky teal!  Had heaps of fun creating this beautifully sparkly watercolour background using LuminArte paints - similar to the Twinkling H2Os available from Scrapbooker's Paradise. Word stickers are from Crate Paper, with Memory box die cut butterfly and Kaisercraft little pearls.

I hope you join in too...