Dotty Gift Bag

I'm joining in again on the Spots n Dots Challenge over at Simon Says Stamp's Flickr Group.

I wanted to make a little gift bag so had a rummage through my patterned papers and came across a Recollections set called Today Tomorrow Forever which has a lovely mix papers including dotty and wood papers that I wanted to use for this project. Recently I bought Lawn Fawn's Goodie Bag die and used that to die cut the little bag. It's such a quick and easy way of whipping up a bag in no time - love it so much! Then I cut a panel of wood patterned paper, and from it, die cut the goodie bag handle and used the banner from Simon Says Stamp's Bundle of Stitched Shapes to finish the shape.

Stamp - Birthday Farm Animals (Simon Says Stamp) Die - Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)

After adhereing the banner to the bag I stuck a little branch on the banner and tied the bag with raffia. I stamped the chicken from the Birthday Farm Animals set, coloured it with Promarkers and did a bit of paper piecing.

As the paper I used for the bag has glitter on some of the dots I thought I'd add a bit of sparkle to the chicken using clear Wink of Stella. I tried to capture some of the sparkle on the chicken's head in the photo below.

After having very mild weather over Christmas, it looks like we're having our cold snap now. It was -3C this morning when I went out and we're due some snow tonight - brrrr!

Spring Chicken Birthday

I just love the fun images and sentiments in Simon Says Stamp's Party Animal set and decided to ink up the chicken, and a spring one at that, for the first time for a birthday card for a friend.

As I wanted the background to go with the dotty parcel that the chicken is sitting on, I used the two circles dies from Simon Says Stamp's Bundle of Stitched Shapes to make a dotty background. After randomly cutting out circles from the panel of black card, I applied backing card and adhered circles of white card which had been cut from scraps and coloured with Promarkers.

Stamps (Simon Says Stamp) - Birthday Farm Animals, Dies (Simon Says Stamp) - Bundle of Stitched Shapes

Then it was on to the chicken which I stamped twice, coloured with Promarkers and layered. After applying glossy accents to the eyes, the chicken was added to the card with foam pads.

I'm submitting this card into the Spots n Dots Challenge over in the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Group,

the Something New Challenge at Simon Says Stamp and the Die Cut Diva's Anything Goes Challenge.

Card for 100th Scramble

Last night over at the Hero Arts Group on Flickr Barb hosted the 100th Scramble in the group. Her theme was to use your all time favourite Hero Arts image stamp as well as your all time Hero Arts sentiment set.

As so many of my Hero Arts stamps are my favourites I had a hard time picking just one. I had whittled my choice down to two different stamps and even though my hubby didn't see which stamps I was dithering over, he said "it's got to be butterflies" so that's how I picked between the two! The butterfly I used is from the Antique Engravings set and has been inked up over and over again as I love it so much.

Stamp - Antique Engravings (Hero Arts)

I started by embossing and sanding the background. Then after stamping and cutting out the butterflies, I coloured them with Promarkers and added touches of diamond distress stickles to the smaller white dots on the wings.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings & Lil Hoot

Then I added some thread for the antennae and stuck the butterflies on the main panel using foam pads. After adding the sentiment, again on foam pads, I used glossy accents to adhere the gorgeous green sequins that my friend Trinh sent me - thanks again Trinh:)

Some ladies manage to make two or even three cards during the Scrambles but I inevitably only manage one and literally end up scrambling to get the card made and uploaded in time. So please just pretend you don't see the wonky card, places I missed colouring and blobs of glossy accents;) Even though it's a mad scramble it is so much fun. If you'd like to join in on a Scramble you'll find the timetable here.

I'm submitting this card into the Die Cut Divas Anything Goes Challenge. Happy stamping and enjoy your Sunday:)

Scrap Busting for a Valentine

Happy New Year, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. We had a great one but it went by way too quickly.

This year I hope to do as much scrap busting as possible. I have folders full of patterned scraps, plain scraps and distress ink or experimental scraps left over from other projects and hope to reduce the pile considerably by the end of the year. So I pulled out some of my distress ink scraps in rainbow colours to make this card.

Distress inks - barn door, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, mowed lawn, salty ocean and dusty concord

Last week I got Hero Arts Renaissance Heart die and couldn't wait to make something with it! So I die cut the heart in black and then in rainbow colours, added a large sticky label behind it and after trimming used the inlay technique to complete the heart.

Dies - Renaissance Heart (Hero Arts), Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)
Stamp - Celebrate Everyday (Hero Arts)

The stitched background was die cut using the rectangle from Simon Says Stamp Bundle of Stitched Shapes and the sentiment is from Hero Arts Celebrate Everyday set. The card is for my hubby so in order to keep it as masculine looking as possible resisted all temptations to add sequins, gems, or any other bits!

As I used something new in my crafty stash I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamp's Something New Challenge and a2zscrapbooking's New to You Challenge. I'm also submitting it into The Die Cut Divas Anything Goes Challenge.