Altenew Inspiration Monthly challenge.... find beauty in every day

Hi there... if you need a distraction what do you do?  Make a card of course!  So I made this card for the Altenew February Inspiration challenge...

 This was the inspiration photo.  And here's what I did

I used the Simple Beauty stamp set with Silver Lake ink.  I missed the first layer of colour and then just stamped the second layer - in Fresh lemon for the bigger flower and Maple Yellow for the smaller one.  Added some green and then Honey Drizzle for the flower centres.  For the leaves I used Shadow Creek and Mountain Pine inks.  It's a bit hard to see, but I took a tiny round blending brush and blended a halo of Citrus Burst around the flower.  I took some Enchanted Gold ink and watered it down to add a few subtle splatters.   The sentiment is from Classic Beauty set.    An apt sentiment for me at the moment.

I'm also adding this to the "Add Leaves" to The Flower Challenge.

and Add a Sentiment at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge

Thanks for stopping by.  

WWC # 259 Dawn's Challenge - Anything Goes with a Masculine Twist

Hello there, it’s time for another Watercooler Wednesday Challenge. It's my turn to host this week and our challenge is Anything Goes with a Masculine Twist.  

 I recently look part in an Altenew Academy class called Mission: Impossible with tutor  Nicole Watts.  It was all about using different ideas to inspire you including using a sketch.  Nicole showed how she made her sketches.   Here is one of the sketches she designed. 

 For my card I changed up the oblongs to circles.

My base is a dark grey card which I splattered with some diluted white paint.  I used a variety of blue Altenew inks with the Halftone Circles stamp to make my circles.  I added the little sentiment in silver embossing powder also from Altenew.  

Come and join the fun.  Check out the projects that the other artists at Watercooler Wednesday

Challenge have created.  Then take our challenge and link your creation to the challenge post.  We'd love to have you join us.  You have until Monday at 5 pm Mountain Standard Time (Tuesday at 12.00 noon NZ time ) to link up your project.

Watercolour florals - using a halftone stamp set

Hi.  Today I am sharing a card I made with one of my latest stamps set I've purchased.  I was lucky to win a gift voucher for Altenew so got a few stamp sets... one being Watercolor Halftone.  It intrigued me with it's variation already build into the stamp set.  There were lots of inspiring samples on the blog hop -

So here is a quick card I made using my MISTI to help me stamp the image.   I saw someone do this with the colours I used, but can't find it now...

I used some textured card stock to stamp onto.  I added colours with the little ink pads and blended with a blender brush.  I did a lot of adding colours - three pinks and a bit of purple and two greens.   The textured card stock gives it the look of being on canvas.  I mounted the panel onto some magenta card and then used the same card to add the white embossed sentiment to the middle.  No other embellishments were needed.  The base card is 5" square.

I'm adding this to the "Add Leaves" challenge at The Flower Challenge.  Luckily the leaves are part of the flower bouquet.  

Thanks for visiting today. 

Double Point card.

February's challenge at my NZ Swap group was a Double Point card.  I have to admit to not knowing what this technique was, so as Val suggested, I used pinterest and You Tube to find the answer.  And boy is it a gorgeous card to make...

I chose to add my double point card to a base, so it was easy to stay stable.   I did have a few issues... a bit of finagling to set it all to fit together.  Made a boo boo on the top layer under the opening...hence there being three layers instead of two.  Still I bet if I hadn't told you, you wouldn't have noticed.  The oval is a Spellbinders one (Floral Ovals), as is the white oval (Classic Ovals).  I added a rose bud from Altenew Peony Bouquet.  The sentiment is from Altenew Beautiful Day set.   My PP is from a pack with some gold foiled card. 

Here it is opened.... The flowers are from the Beautiful Days set and the sentiment from Kaisercraft,  

And I even decorated the inside of the base card. 

I got my ideas from two different bloggers and their videos

     - https://janbcards.com/2020/01/double-point-flap-card-video.html

     - https://thepamperedstamper.com/2019/04/double-point-card/

Thanks for stopping by... I've had a great weekend playing with new stamps - made three cards for my Altenew Swap on Facebook but can't share until the recipients get their cards.  One to Iceland, one to US and one to Australia...  

Birthday Boys at Sweet Stampin' challenge

Hi there.  It's time for another challenge at Sweet Stampin' challenge blog and our theme this week is Birthday Boys.

My little grandson turns four this year... April 20th in fact, but I've made his card already!  I bought a Whimsy Stamps digital stamp in January and knew I wanted to make Archie's card straight away!

Isn't this just a cutest little surfer Dude.... the stamp is called "Dude"  I have used Prismacolor pencils and some Copics to colour him up.  His shorts are to symbolise  the surfer club that my daughter and son-in-law belong to.  Their colours are yellow tops and red shorts.  I used my scan'n'cut to cut him out.  The background is some Patterned paper is from a pack by Uniti.  The sentiment is an old one from Penny Black and the #4 is die cut with a Mama Elephant die set.

Do come and share your Birthday Boy cards.

WWC 258 Marsha's Challenge: All about Occasions

Hello there, it’s time for another Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  Marsha is our hostess this week with an All About Occasions challenge

Today I am sharing a birthday card.  This came about as I was tidying up my space and found a kit I brought many years ago.  Inside the package was a decoupage flower, some card stock, an embossed card panel and a stamped sentiment.  So I quickly was able to put together this card.

I used glue dots between the layers of the flower.  There were 5 layers. The flower was added with a dimensional.  I added the pink matting around the sentiment and added it behind the flower.  A few enamel dots finished the card.

Come and join the fun.  Check out the projects that the other artists at Watercooler Wednesday

Challenge have created.  Then take our challenge and link your creation to the challenge post.  We'd love to have you join us.  You have until Monday at 5 pm Mountain Standard Time (Tuesday at 12.00 noon NZ time ) to link up your project.

Cat-titude!

I was visiting my blog friend Jo's blog (here) and she is a designer team member for The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers... a simply fun blog - their latest challenge theme is C is for CATS.

Jo made a super cool card.  I knew I wanted to use Tim Holtz Crazy Cats to make a card, so did some google searching to find a punny sentiment

I loved this sentiment and I used my computer to generate it directly to the card before I did some ombre sponging with a mixture of Altenew inks and Distress inks. I deliberately left it messy to give some movement and texture to the background.  I added some pen lines around the sentiment.  I stamped the cat directly to the card and then again onto some scrap card which I coloured up and fussy cut and laid directly over the stamped image.

I also noted that Addicted to CAS has Ombre as the key word this challenge so I am adding this to the challenge

 

I giving this to our cat-sitter.  Our cat is black but brown looked better on the card.

CAS stencil with Foiling

I saw that the latest CAS Stencil challenge has been posted and this time the key word is "Foil"

This week I bought myself the WRMK Foil Quill set for my Scan'n'Cut and also the medium freestyle pen.  I haven't tried the machine yet, but thought this challenge would help me get started with the freestyle pen.

I chose to try it out with an Altenew Stencil (Flowing Hearts)

I used the pen to colour in the stencil... a few missing bits and pieces but overall I was very happy with the results.    I've added a sentiment strip from the Altenew Sentiments strips set.  I trimmed the panel and layered it onto some red card.  Added a few gold sequins to finish.  Even though there are a few layers and some sequins I think it is still CAS enough.

I've had a lovely day today... Yesterday was Waitangi Day (New Zealand's national day) so I took the day off today to make a 4 day weekend.  Hubby had to do his job in the morning and afternoon - He drives a mini van to take Special Needs children to and from school.  So once he was home this morning we did the housework and then the grocery shopping.  After lunch he headed back to do the afternoon run and I made this card before heading to the beach for a swim and sunbathe.  We've been having some super warm days over the last three weeks or so.

Thanks for stopping by today.