FMS #307

Another coloured pencil creation today, although to me this illustrates the difference between cheap coloured pencils & the more expensive Polychromos as the finish on the red golf bag is not as good as I’d like. It also shows the difference between colouring in artificial light and daylight, as it really doesn’t stand up to close up photography. Thankfully it does look better in real life! The layout is based on this week’s sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

The golfing stamp is from an old set by Crafts UK, the golf ball was made using a Cuttlebug embossing folder (it’s the reverse side), the spotty flag was stamped with a dotty background stamp & cut using an MFT die. The greeting is a Clearly Besotted stamp, embossed and then cut out with another MFT die.

Cocker Spaniel Cutie!

My husband’s family used to own a much-loved cocker spaniel, so when I saw this digital stamp over at Just Inklined I knew it would be perfect for my father-in-law’s birthday. I had a lovely time colouring it in Promarkers, but then I didn’t know what to do with it!

Then I saw that this month’s challenge at Virginia’s View is plaid or stripes, so that gave me an idea for the background. I combined it with the Sketch Saturday challenge which is to use an old sketch. I therefore chose sketch number 272:

When I came to place the sentiment, it didn’t really work in the position of the sketch so I hope they’ll forgive me for varying it just slightly. Anyway, here’s a close-up of the cute puppy:

Flutterby

As ever, the sketch at Sketch Saturday caught my eye this week so that’s what this card is based on. The background was made using the wax paper resist technique; the MFT butterfly was embossed in Wow! white embossing powder on vellum and the rest was from my stash. I didn’t have any coloured card to match the background so I coloured some plain white card with a Soft Green Promarker.

Father’s Day: Part One

At the last minute I had to be my son’s taxi driver this evening, instead of my husband, and thanks to that I’ve missed the deadline over at Sketch Saturday, which this card was based on! I’m pleased to say I’m not too late for the Brown Sugar challenge, though, where the theme is Father’s Day.

Most of this was from my stash, except for the Docrafts wooden letters.

Retirement Notes

 

My (older) sister retires a couple of years early today. Jealous – me? How did you guess?! Anyway, I had an idea a while back for a card similar to this so I based it on the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. The text for the main image was created in Word, then embossed using a Darice embossing folder – it took numerous attempts to get the text to line up properly! Then the top was die cut with a Clearly Besotted die.

The background was the result of more playing with wax paper & embossing folders, inked with Distress Inks. The mini clip was from Tesco, and the greeting is by Crafter’s Companion. Now the only problem is how to fit it in an envelope!

Coming Up Roses

The Altenew Build a Rose set was free with a magazine the other week & I had to buy it, although these days I normally resist the temptation to buy a magazine just for the “freebie”! Of course, to use these stamps you need a set of 3 matching inks and I only had 3 inks that fitted the bill: Versamagic Aquatic Splash, Turquoise Gem and Ocean Depth so that dictated the colour scheme for this card. I based it on the sketch over at Kathy’s Waffle Sketch File; I’m also entering this into the tic-tac-toe challenge at The Paper Players, and I’ve gone for the twine/die-cut/girly trio.

The background was created using the wax paper technique with embossing folders, inked with Evergreen Bough Distress Ink. The stamps are by Simon Says Stamp & Clearly Besotted, and the sequins were in my stash.

Pearl Wishes

My brother & his wife celebrate their pearl (30th) wedding anniversary in a few days and this card is from my mum to them. I liked the sketch over at Retro Sketches so it’s based on that. I’m also entering this over at Creatalicious Challenges, where the theme is Ribbons & Pearls – plenty of the latter here!

The embossing folder is Tied Together by Creative Expressions, and the pearls are also CE. The numbers are a Robert Addams die and I’ve “blinged” them up a bit with some Wink of Stella which of course is really difficult to photograph but I’ve tried to capture it here:

Teenage Grunge

 

This card takes me right out of my comfort zone! The sketch over at Sketch Saturday drew my attention again this weekend, so it seemed appropriate to use one of the stamps which was my fantastic prize for winning over there a couple of weeks ago.

This main image is by the Greeting Farm (Special Autumn), coloured in Promarkers then fussy cut. The white background cardstock was sponged in Memento Grape Jelly through a stencil by TCW called Coffee Splotch, then stamped with a few stamps from Phill Martin’s Teenage Boy’s Montage range in Hero Arts Charcoal. The purple Coredinations cardstock was run through my Fiskars Fuse with a Sizzix Alterations Ink Splats embossing folder, then sanded back a touch. The greeting is a mix of an unknown “Happy Birthday” stamp & letter stamps by Craftwork Cards.

Christmas Catch-Up Part 3

The last of the Christmas cards; the first was to my Mum from my son using stamps from and a liberal sprinkling of Wink of Stella (again):

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics, Xerox Colotech Plus

Ink: Adirondack Eggplant

Stamps: Kirsty Wiseman for Personal Impressions

 

The second card is from my son to my other half, and was entirely made from digital downloads, the image being coloured with Promarkers:

Cardstock: Xerox Colotech Plus

Santa Image: Cool Santa on Skateboard from Pink Cat Studios

Backing papers: MyGrafico

Greeting: free (not sure where from)

 

And last, but not least, this is the card I sent to our 2 nephews, neither of whom had a particularly good end to 2013 so I hope 2014 is better for them both!

Cardstock: Anna Marie Designs, Green: Bazzill sanded & recoloured with Adirondacks

Stamps: Woodware

Embossing folder free with magazine

LIM #127 Shades of Grey & CAS Sketch #248

My nephew has loved trains from a very young age, thanks to his paternal Grandad. He has tried several times to get a job working for various railway companies and yesterday – finally! – he got the job he’d been desperate for: working for Virgin Trains’ Customer Services.  So of course I had to make him a card to congratulate him.

This week I’ve combined another 2 challenges.  The current theme at Less is More is Shades of Grey so I’ve incorporated Virgin Trains’ grey, red & yellow colours with a darker grey & black.  I hope the red & yellow don’t disqualify me!

I really liked today’s sketch at Clean & Simple Stamping, especially as it reminded me of old fashioned railway signals, so I decided to incorporate that, too.

Cardstock: Xerox Colotech Plus 300gsm (base card), Papermania (greys) & Lidl (red/yellow)

Cuttlebug Seeing Spots embossing folder

Stamp:  Maker unknown

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black