By The Tide

Have had this stamp set for a little while now, and this is the first time it has seen ink! I know thats disgraceful, so today I set about making amends! Our eldest son's birthday is today and he is a mad fisherman and knew he would love this card, anything at all to do with fishing and her is there. The card base is Crumb Cake, layered with Very Vanilla and Sahara Sand. I scored a border at 5/8" and 3/4" around all sides of the Sahara Sand to make a frame for the main image. I made a mask of the fish, stamped my focal fish and off stamped  the other two fish  using Soft Suede. Then I stamped a little sea horse on the diagonal corners of the Very Vanilla card stock. The sentiment is from the Express Yourself Hostess set and that was also stamped in Soft Suede. I seem to find myself reaching for this set all the time now, as the sentiments are so versatile. The other day when I was playing with my Simply Pressed Clay and the Simply Pressed Blossoms and Buttons Molds I made some coloured buttons. This one is  believe it or not has been coloured using Early Espresso re-inker, I didnt use much at all, because I didnt want to make it too dark, so I began lighter. I really like the way the colour has come out on the faux button, which I attached to the side of the card with Hemp Twine. I have tried several ways to get the buttons particularly out of the molds and really the easiest way is to pop the mold into the freezer for 15 mins and they just pop out and stay in shape! Another lovely simple card for a male of any age! Till next time, Happy Stamping.

Sunny Challenges and Creations 84/13

This week at Sunny Challenges and Creations, the brief was a simple one, to create a male card. Male cards for me are hard to create, but the task has been made so much easier because of  some of the beautiful male orientated stamp sets and backgrounds that we have in the new 2013 - 2014 catalogue. I started with a Crumb Cake base, on which I matted with Soft Suede that I had stamped using the Wood grain background stamp in the same colour. The Open Sea was my choice of stamp set for this card, I love the ships log stamp particularly so I inked it up in Crumb Cake, off stamped then stamped onto Very Vanilla Cardstock. The Ship I stamped in Early Espresso, then cut it out and it was put on the card using dimensionals. The compass and the sentiment are in Garden Green. I used some hemp twine and tied a knot and attached this with a Glue Dot, the sentiment was punched out using the Modern Label Punch and attached straight onto the card front. I do hope that you will play along with us for  this challenge, you have two weeks to get your entry in, and who knows you might just be our next Ray of Sunshine! Till next time, happy stamping.

Sunny Challenges 039/12

Hi Stampers,

This week the challenge is to use the sketch plus the colours Melon Mambo, Soft Suede and Tempting Turquoise. Wow, this one really made me think and I had decided that I did not want to make a feminine card this week, but how do you make a masculine card with Melon Mambo?  Well, I think I solved that problem, dont you? My card base is Whisper White and that was matted with Soft Suede and Tempting Turquoise. I then passed these through the Big Shot using the Lattice embossing folder. I used the colours Tempting Turquoise, Night of Navy, Melon Mambo and More Mustard, and sponged Soft Suede around the edges and also at the bottom of the picture. I used Early Espresso to stamp my image and a small piece of Hemp Twine tied in a knot and distressed to give it the appearance of a sheath of wheat that has been tied. The Tempting Turquoise dots were made by punching the holes with the Crop-a-dile and I attached these using the mini glue dots..This is what I came up with. I hope you like it, its a little different to what I usually do. Dont forget to head on over to Vicky and Kris’s blogs to check out their creations for this week, and we hope you play along with us at Sunny Challenges and Creations. More info on my blog if you would like it.

Sail Away

I decided to partake in CardPatterns' Challenge this week, and this is what I came up with. I stamped Sail Away several times onto cardstock and cut out various sections of it so I could layer them to add dimension. When it was all cut and layered I smeared Crystal Effects over the hull of the boat and the sails. I tied a knot in the Hemp Twine which I am seriously hoping it looks like a knot that would be used on a boat. Because it is such a long card I had scored a frame for the Basic Black mat to sit inside and then I used the Tasteful Trims Die and cut the large scallop edging top and bottom. The two smallest buttons in the Sweet Buttons embosslit I cut and placed on the top and bottom of the card. This card id different to what I usually do but I do like it, and hope you do too! Bye for now.....