Another Altenew Inspired card and Hero Arts Scramble...

I have seen my bloggy friend Virginia use Alcohol inks with her stamps and I decided that I would use some Altenew stamps with the inks to make another card for the Inspiration challenge for Februray

 

I used Beautiful Day stamp set and black embossed the glossy card and the used Alcohol inks on the images.  I then die cut the flowers and leaves.  My patterned paper is from Kaisercraft.    This was such a fun card to make and so quick to make.  

 This morning I also hit the craft room to join the Hero Arts 90 min scramble.  It was a 24hr one, so you just crafted at any time within the 24 hrs and make and photo your card within 90 mins.  I took 1 hour 20mins to make this one.  Our theme was to make a background.

A very busy background.  I used a HA stamp called Flower Medley.  It reminded me of the colouring book pages that are popular at the moment.  I used Zig Markers and water to colour them flowers.  As it was sooo busy, I chose to use vellum to add a sentiment.     I had fun doing this one too. 

It has been a very hot day, so my stints in the craft room cooled me down as my room is on the cooler side of the house. 

An Inspirational card with Gina K Designs

I'm here to share my card over at Die Cut Divas.  I'ts an inspirational card using Gina K Design stamps

The stamped oval, sentiment and butterfly are all from the Warm Spring Wishes set.  I hand cut the circle and added it over a die cut Spellbinders Fancy Frame.  The butterfly was coloured and then fussy cut.  I finished by die cutting a stitched rectangle from some PP.  Finished with some pearls.

The sentiment is inspiring so this card went to a friend who has been through some hard times and is now coming out the other side.  Just to remind her that she is strong.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by Jacqueline and Susan

At Stamping group yesterday I had inspiration from two of my favouritest people... the lovely Susan (who I am happy to say lives very close to me).... and Jacqueline (who lives a long way away but inspires me with her beautiful soft and pretty cards and tags)

Starting with Susan... one rather special lady... she makes very beautiful and intricate cards that often have hand stitching on them ~ something that is not easy for her to do.... I love the way she makes them.  She has taught me how to make beautiful watercoloured backgrounds as well... But yesterday I was inspired to try some sewing on some pretty patterned paper.  I did the sewing at home and took the piece to group, to pick her brains on how to complete the card....

The purple butterfly and the brad in my crochet flower were her suggestions... and yes Sue, they did work!  I haven't put a sentiment on it yet... may wait till I use the card to do so...

Now on to Jacqueline.... another very special and courageous lady currently suffering some health issues... I have oft admired the cards and tags Jacqueline makes... I am the lucky owner of one or two.  Anyway of late, Jacqueline has been using a Hero Arts Frame stamp to perfection.  I bought the stamp and then was a bit daunted to use it as I felt my work would not be up to the wonderful standard of hers.  However this week I jumped right in and used it... first on my little owl card (here) and then these two cards...

Both use other Hero Arts Stamps and Distress Inks.  The orange one also as a Rubbadubbadoo stamp along the bottom. The background paper for the second one was made with Pearlescent water colours paints that I used following Sue's instructions.  Looks really stunning for real.  I finally felt these came up to standard and I feel more confident using the stamp now.  Thank you to both of these ladies for their inspiring work.

I have entered these into Virginia's  Stamp your Hero HeArt out challenge.

And a big thanks to my lovely readers.... I do appreciate that someone out there visits and leaves me comments...

Have a great week... I will be!!!!  Something special happening on Tuesday....

Take care

Dawn

What inspires you?

that's the question on Jenny's blog ( Wee Memories) this week?  Do you have a fav designer? Fav magazine? Fav online gallery?  And what does it inspire you to make.... 


I get a lot of my inspiration from the Hero Arts Flickr group ( see this post )  and from the various blogs I visit.  Last night I was flicking through the HA group and came across this card from the lovely Lin 

Isn't it adorable.... it got me thinking and looking on my desk.... and inspire this card

I started with a strip of blue paper on found on the desk.  I stamped it with the HA Envelope Pattern  ( Hero Arts ~ this is the BEST stamp ever!!!!!!!!)  I used Stormy Sky distress ink.  Once I had cut the paper in half, I used one piece to punch out the edging ( Fiskars Apron Lace) and I matted them together.  I used a Spellbinders Label 4 for the little tag, stamping a HA sparkle clear set sentiment and sponged the edge with the Stormy Sky ink.   I made the flower with some Hero Arts flowers and some punched flowers, one being made with a bit of a tissue box ( a la Arlene) I adhered the flower to a blue ribbon bow and added to the card with the tag.   All in all, quite simple looking... but effective and a big thanks to Lin for the inspiration..( make sure you go see her wonderful work on her Flickr photostream) ..so it is getting entered into the Wee Memories challenge....


Hope the week is going well for you.... almost the weekend.  I'm off to stamp with Lei, Helen, Janet,  Glenda and Sandie.... what a wonderful thing to look forward to...

Inspiration at its best....

Last week I was struggling with getting a card made.... simply no mojo so for my trip to stamp group on Saturday, I decided I need to have some inspiration.  So I popped into the Flickr groups I belong to, and some of the blogs I visit regularly to supply me with some.... and boy did I find plenty......
so first off I was inspired by the very talented Dustypenny ( aka Joy Ott). This card she made (here) inspired me to make this:

I started by sponging the one side of my base card with Old Olive distress ink and over stamped with a grid stamp by Rubadubado and then all over with Hero Arts Envelope stamp ( fast becoming a MUST USE stamp) For my focal panel I use a piece of water coloured paper I had made. I started by stamping it with a script stamp ( again by Rubadubado) in tea dye distress and then used Forest Moss to stamp the Hero Arts Leaf Cluster.   I used Joy's idea of lace and a flower along the bottom of the panel.  I used a punch to make my own flower in a matching colour and added the lace leaves 

For my next inspiration,  I used this card (here) from the Penny Black blog. It was made by Denise Marzec .  She used some of the new PB papers called Field of Irises.   Here is my take on the card

I made my pp by distressing some white card with Dusty Concord  and Shabby Shutters distress ink.  I then used some inspiration from Jill Foster.... flicked water drops onto it.  Jill is the Mistress of this technique.  I then stamped Hero Arts Dandelion Frame in the Dusty Concord.   I stamped three Hero Arts butterflies ~ two onto the distress card and one on white card.  I fussy cut them and layered onto the card.  I finished with a sentiment by Hero Arts and some gems.  

I love that there are so many many talented and wonderful crafters out there who provide us all with inspiration and I thank them all....... what a great way to get the creative juices running again.  I feel it is very important to acknowledge someone when you have used their card for inspiration.  It only takes a moment to say thanks for the idea, inspiration, concept etc.  I know I am happy that someone thinks my work is good enough to copy, inspire, challenge or whatever but sometime it can be disheartening if you see some has taken your idea and used it without acknowledging where they got it.....


Hope the rest of the week is good for you all... it's almost the weekend.  We have such a busy one... a 21st birthday party on Saturday evening and a family dinner on Sunday evening. 

Inspiration from others....

I love going through the Hero Arts Flickr photo group as there is just so much inspiration there... As I am still suffering my cold ( now had Thurs, Friday, half of Monday and today off work!!!) and despite having lots of part done cards.... not much mojo going on.  Been sleeping lots during the day as coughing most of the night... so a visit to the photo stream for some inspiration.
I came across a whole pile of cards by Terry.  She made a couple of cards ( here and here) where she used distress ink on the Poppy Background and spritzed it with water.  I liked this technique so gave it a go.

I started with a piece of cream textured card stock and inked up my stamp with Forest Moss and Tumbled Glass inks, spritzed with pearlised water.  On the texture it looks a bit like canvas.  I then spritzed again and added some clear EP.  Quite a bit blew off but some stuck and enhanced the textured look.  I coloured in the poppies with a mixture of distress inks and water coloured pencils.  My matted background looks blue but in real life is more greeny.   So a big thanks to Terry for setting me off on this path.

Hope your week is starting better than mine has.... feeling a lot better though this afternoon ( even if I am still sitting here in my PJ's and dressing gown at 4.30 in the afternoon) - back to work tomorrow...

Cheers and thanks for popping by.

Diane's Journal

I got a text on Saturday from our niece Angela, asking me to make a note book for her Mum, (my SIL Diane) so she could put her thoughts and feelings down. Her new on the mass on her brain was not good. It is incurable - but with radiation therapy and monitoring - life will go on...
I decided to use this lovely scrapbooking paper by Kaiser. I cut one sheet and layered it onto the book and then cut out the flowers from the other sheet and popped them on top. I got a copper looking "D" and then used chip board letters for the rest of her name. I pressed them onto versamark and heat embossed copper powder on twice.
The inside pages I found some lovely sentiments by Three Bugs in a Rug. They are quite inspiring - so I stamped them through out the pages.

I have posted it off, so hope she likes it and can get some use out of it. Diane, our prayers are with you. Love you....

Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by Lin

Yesterday was club day at my local stamp store ( Stamp'n'create). Started at 10.30am and went through to 4.00pm. Love this day every month, sharing time with like-minded ladies. This week I took along my new stamp set by Hero Arts - High Heels..... I was amazed at how one stamp set could generate so many different cards. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me so didn't get any photos of the creations Helen, Sue & the others made. I finished off my calendar from last week and then did this card for the HA challenge this week. It is to do a card inspired by someone else. This card was inspired by Lin's card here. I really "card lifted" as I used many of the same things. I used the Printed flowers set which I embossed in white and then rubbed the Distress inks - Faded Jeans and Shabby shutters over. I used the Scattered Leaves set to overstamp in Shabby shutters on the paper and stamp the two leaves I attached with the flowers. The butterfly is from a Inkadinkadoo set - embossed in white and rubbed with Faded Jeans. I really enjoyed distressing - so used Shabby shutters round the text page and Faded Jeans round the kraft paper which I used my fingernail to distress. All then matted on to a blue Bazzil Bling card. Lin makes the most amazing cards. I really love her style. Check out her Flickr photostream.

Inspiration

Today I decided I wanted to go to a class at Stamp'n'create on using the new spellbinders, so took the day off work. Great I thought, class is not till 10.30am so I'd have a nice sleep in, a leisurely brekkie and toddle off to class...... well as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men..... hubby told me last night that the wall paperer was coming at 7.30am this morning.... and as he was papering in our ensuite..... I had to get up super early to be dress and organised. There went the sleep in... made up for it by spending a goodly amount of time surfing all my fav sites. I also managed to catalogue the new stamps that I got last weekend and during the week... and doing the earrings.... one pair I made last night for my daughter and the other pair this morning for myself. The HA CL303 is a great stamp to skrinky dink as it is quite large.

Class was really fun. We did some lovely cards using Impressabilites and inking them and using the Dahila nestabilities. Will post photos tomorrow as it is really wintery and I couldn't get any great photos of them.

I did however manage to get a photo of the card I did for the Hero Arts Blog challenge this week. It is all about getting inspiration from the cards people made using a tag "2009catalog" My card was inspired by Lucy who lives in England. Have a look at the original here. I really like Lucy's cards. She has so much fun with them I used kraft card for the base and some patterned paper samples that I down loaded by Papertrey - here is the site. The birds are from the set of Decrotive Birds by HA. The sentiment is from a set by Inkadinkadoo. Button from my stash and string from my kitchen drawer. Boy did I have trouble threading it through the buttons...

Tomorrow is club day at Stamp'n'create, so I've decided to take a couple of Lin's cards for inspiration.
Thanks for stopping by.... enjoy your weekend