Happy Fathers' Day!

It's Dads' day today. I saw a card on a blog earlier this week. Thought I bookmarked it, but unfortunately, I didn't. This idea has been ruminating, and I couldn't get it out of my head. I have a deer stamp that I've used in the past, but it wasn't what I wanted for this card. Three failed attempts later, I just got out some card components I stamped at a card camp and decided to give that to dad.

It wasn't what I wanted, so I took a trip to Walmart yesterday and picked up the wildlife Cricut cartridge so I could complete this card. Funny thing is I've been looking at that cart for weeks, if not months, and kept saying to myself that I didn't think I'd use it.

So, this morning, while husband was vacuuming, I went downstairs to do laundry, and while I was down there, I whipped up this card. When I have an idea in my head, it takes next to no time for it to come to life.

I sponged on Broken China distress ink for the sky, followed by Stormy Sky and Weathered Wood to create the mountains. The pine tree from Stampin' Up's Lovely as a Tree was stamped in soot black distress ink, but I stamped it off on paper first so it wasn't bold.
The stag is cut at 4 inches, and attached with my xyron.
I punched out the pine sprigs from three different shades of green with my MS punch and attached it to the base of the card with a run of glue tape. Easy peasy. Not counting the two hours working on the failures and the 30 mins working on the first father's day card, the 2 hour errand trip to Walmart and other places, this card took less than 15 minutes to create.

Cats and mice

As I am writing this, my Tyger cat is being very affectionate, trying to get 100 per cent of my attention. He is succeeding. 

Once in a while, I get the urge to play with colours I don't really use a lot. In this case, it was purple. I have a ton of purple cardstock, but it's not something I usually use. I normally tend to neutrals. 

This house mouse stamp was coloured with copics. The strip behind the card was made with a MS punch.

I made this one with toys purchased on my trip south with my friend M. Coloured, as usual, with copics. I wasn't thrilled with the colour of the lemonade, so I coloured it with the blender pen to lighten it. The flowers are made with a Fiskars punch. 

Another new purchase... I am not thrilled with the way the ground turned out. It was better once I coloured it with the blender pen. Next time, I think I'll stick to lighter colours for the ground.

First Flourishes challenge- get sketchy!

I was playing around on the internet the other night and came across the Fourishes blog. I really liked the sketch, and had a couple of ideas for it. I only have a couple of Flourishes stamps, but I would have to say this one is my top pick. I love daisies, and wanted to use this stamp for the challenge.

I've made a couple of other cards with this stamp, and usually I colour the flowers first and then the centres and then stems, but tonight, I switched it up and did the stems, centres and then I thought I would leave the daisies white. I did add a little colour to the ones in the back for shading- I used copic BV000 to give it a little dimension. I layered on purple- a colour I don't use very often- and added the ribbon and knot. This card came together fairly quickly, and I needed to have a creative outlet tonight- it's been a busy week, and I needed to have some fun in the stamping zone. I will be checking out the Flourishes blog more often- lots of fun, and a lot of inspiration!

LIM- Week 18 Less is More

Another busy weekend- before I headed out to work and errands on Saturday, I checked theLess is More challenge to see what was on order for this week. Monochrome. Not something I am really comfortable with- or really work with. I enjoy participating in this challenge because it helps me get out of my comfort zone, and gets me exploring my inner creative soul.

I got this stamp set from Chapel Road Artstamps last summer, and it hadn't seen ink- in fact, the rubber hadn't even been cut. I loved the look of the stamps from Chapel Road, and wasn't sure what I was getting into with unmounted rubber- all of my stamps before ordering from them were either mounted or clear. I really like they way they ink up- I just attached them to an acrylic block with a little tape and that worked like a charm.

 This is a 5 inch square, stamped in black ink. The diagonal band was embossed with holographic embossing powder to give it a little shine, and the dragonfly was embossed with clear EP five times to give it dimension and shape. It was embossed then cut out, before it was placed on the dragonfly background, which was cut out and placed on top of a black square.

This card I decided to do in shades of brown- the stamp is from LaBlanche. I stamped it in sepia archival ink, then sponged all over with tea dye distress inks. The edges were rubbed with a darker (burlap, I think) distress ink. The sentiment was stamped in the same darker distress ink and sponged all over with tea dye. I think it needs a little something, maybe a couple of brads or something... not sure. 

Christmas card catchup

In January, I signed up for the Christmas card challenge at SCS. I lagged behind in April after our cruise. Then it was the end of May... and well, I was two months behind. I actually had the April card done in March, but didn't get around to getting it done. I did the May and June cards a couple of weeks ago and I am up to date. It stresses me out to have missed a deadline, even if there are no consequences!

The cards:

 

This was April's card- 5 inch square cut from plaid cardstock. The stamp is from LaBlanche, which is probably one of my new faves- they are silicone stamps. They are a dream to work with and the ink cleans off of them perfectly. 

I layered the card on a slightly larger piece of green, and to tie it together, I embossed the sentiment on the same green with gold powder from Ranger.

 

This was May's entry... I wanted to try tone-on-tone, and was inspired with the patterned cardstock that I picked up on my recent trip south. The solid blue is Bashful Blue from Stampin' Up- I was quite impressed with how well the two papers went together. The snowflake was cut from shimmery white cardstock using a Cuttlebug die. I punched two holes in the snowflake and ran ribbon through it to make a slide. The sentiment was stamped in denim blue ink. 

 And this was the catch-up piece for June. I love, love, love this card. When my friend and I went to Crafts Direct a couple of weeks ago, I swore I wasn't going to get any Christmas stamps. I don't think this would classify, as there's nothing technically Christmassy about it.

The dark blue is a 5.25 square of navy, layered with Bashful Blue. The snowflakes were stamped in white and embossed. The smaller layer was one of the stamps included in the set Swirling Snow from Unity Stamp Co and layered onto navy. The sentiment was stamped on white and then cut out. I then put Versamark all over the sentiment and covered it with holographic embossing powder.

As I cannot tie a bow to save my life, I cut a small piece of ribbon, knotted it and attached it to the card with a glue dot.

Now, on to come up with ideas for July!

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery

A couple of weeks ago, I was on Splitcoast Stampers, and came across this card and fell in love. I had to save it in my favourites folder, knowing that I would go back and look at it again and again.

I have a similar flower stamp, and wanted to create something with it... this is what resulted:

The flowers were coloured with Copics, and the butterflies were punched using a Martha Stewart punch. I punched out six butterflies, and layered two together, placing them on the card and then bending the wings to make them three-dimensional.