PaperPlay Challenge - Bon Voyage

Bon Voyage is the title of this week’s challenge on PaperPlay. So your card can be for a vacation, moving house etc.

Simon Says Stamp has kindly sponsored this week’s challenge and I’m sure the lucky winner will have a great time picking out yummy new goodies to the tune of $15 from the store.



Stamps used: - House with Plant & Cloud Background (Hero Arts) & New Home (Anita’s).

I love this house stamp from Hero Arts so I’ve stamped off lots of images and have had fun colouring them using different colour combinations. The house here is coloured with watercolour pencils and for the background I sponged distress inks (shabby shutters, broken china & faded jeans) onto white card. I love looking at all the creative cards/layouts that Trinh comes up with and I absolutely loved the way she embossed the Cloud Background in white on one of her gorgeous cards here. It made such a beautiful, soft background so I decided to use her idea on my card.

I’ve been buying bits and pieces of ribbon since I started making cards and hardly ever use them, so I think it’s time to start digging into my stash. I find it hard to make nice looking bows and spend ages fiddling around with ribbons trying to get it right. It's too late now for this card but next time I must try this make your own bow maker that I just came across - I have the jar, the pegs and I certainly have the ribbon!

I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the challenge!

Keeping in Touch

Two posts in the one day, now that won't be happening very often with me!

The August challenge at Hero Arts is Keeping in Touch and Back to School. So I thought for the keeping in touch theme I would make something for a family moving house. I made a card and also a set of new address cards to go with it which they could give to their friends to help keep in touch.

Keeping in Touch - Card, originally uploaded by heather maria.

Stamps used (Hero Arts):- House with Plant, Lace Background.

I embossed the background on the main card in white with the the Lace Background stamp. For the sky and grass I sponged distress inks (shabby shutters, broken china and faded jeans) onto white card. The house is coloured with watercolour pencils and I added Glossy Accents to the door and pot. Both the sold sign and pot with the tree are on foam pads.



On the new address cards I printed the address using French Script MT in Word and also coloured these houses with watercolour pencils.

Edited - Just to let you know that for the example I've shown here, I didn't use my friends' real surname, address or telephone number. Thanks Jenny for your concern!

PaperPlay Challenge - Sandie's Sketch

This week the challenge at PaperPlay is to make a card using this great sketch designed by Sandie.



The prize this week has kindly been sponsored by Meljen’s Designs.

I made a new home card using one of Meljen’s Designs' adorable digital images called Garden Bird House. Now this is the kind of birdhouse I’d love to have in my garden, little love birds and vines included!



Stamps:- Meljen’s Designs (Garden Bird House), Hero Arts (Flourish Background & Clouds)

I coloured the image with pencils, added glossy accents to the ladybird, gems to the flowers, a heart pearl to "HOME" and touches of diamond stickles here and there. The “tweet home” is a Word font – Comic Sans MS. The Flourish Background is embossed in white on the white background.



I printed off the Garden Bird House image in a few different sizes and for my first attempt at making a little mini book used one on the cover. Instructions on Japanese bookbinding can be found in Lisa's video here on the Hero Arts blog. It’s fun making these little mini books and hopefully next time I won’t have to keep starting and stopping the video as I go along!


Stamp:- Meljen’s Designs (Garden Bird House)


I'm using the book to house information on our home. It contains\will contain information on each room (floor size, window size, amount and colours of paints used etc) so instead of having to measure up and estimate quantities any time we decorate, the info will always be there in this book.

I’m sure you’ll have fun with Sandie’s sketch and am looking forward to seeing your creations!

PaperPlay Challenge - Home

The challenge this week at PaperPlay Challenges is home. So I decided to use this image from Papertrey Ink's Boards and Beams set. I really love the look of these kind of houses but wouldn't like to think of all the work involved in the upkeep of all the wood in real life, so a stamped one will have to do me!

The image is coloured with watercolour pencils. For the background I cut a shape out of white card using the labels 8 set. To get a white outline, I flipped the shape over while still in the die and lightly sponged the area with distress inks (shabby shutters and broken china). The sentiment is embossed in white on vellum and I just added these little heart pearls from Hero Arts and a bead on the door.



Stamp:- Boards and Beams (Papertrey Ink) New House (Anita's)