Colour Crazy Challenge ~ Oddballs

A warm hello today as I swing in with the cutest Oddball make ever! I'm here to share my GDT creation for the Colour Crazy Challenge and let me tell ya, this one is a cutie! The sponsor this week, is the Oddball Art Company. I love their name, because some of their characters really are oddball, it's very tongue in cheek, but there are also some really sweet wistful fairytale characters too. The DT was given a choice of two designs to work with and I'd spotted these fellas a while back. They remind me a wee bit of the 'glumps' my kiddos used to watch and play with from Moshi Monsters. So I found them quite fun to colour up. This wee bunch is aptly named 'Magical Pile of Cute'.

I wanted to do a real rainbow of colours, bright, cheeky and cheerful. So I've gone with quite a bold palette. Last minute I decided they needed a sky behind them, so quickly inked that in before making up the creation. You can see in the pic below the unfinished design before I added the clouds. I also added some white Flower Soft to all the little puff-ball antennae and some Wink of Stella to the unicorn horns. They really are like an invasion of cute aliens! LOL.

I had some papers sitting on my craft desk from a magazine I'd been flipping through, which I spotted had a lovely bright paper amongst them. So I used that as the backing paper for this design and I LOVE it! I think it works a treat with this bright wee bunch of characters. The sentiment printed as part of the design, so I used it as it was, which was a nice simple solution for a sentiment. I matted the image layer with two little accent colours. The red cardstock strips that I'd trimmed off the side when cutting my base down to size and I also added a lovely adhesive glitter paper in blue for a bit of interest and bling. A simple but effective finishing touch I think. You might recall in a recent creation I spoke about finding this 'adhesive school book wrap' in glitter in my supermarket and thinking this could make an elegant and less expensive glitter cardstock solution to what I usually use. This roll is huge! So will last me for a long while.

Well that's it from me for today. I hope you enjoyed seeing this colourful collection of fluffy fun! Do pop on over to the Colour Crazy Challenge to see what the rest of the team got up to for this challenge. The other image the DT used was a lovely mushroom fairy house, so be sure to check out those gorgeous creations. I'll be back again soon with another crafty adventure. In the meantime, have a wonderful week and happy crafting! Hugs, Wends xoxo

Challenge Entries:

Whimsy Wednesday ~ La Vie en Rose

Hey there lovelies. I'm here today with my Whimsy Wednesday post. We've no challenge going live today, as we're about to re-jig things over at Whimsy Challenge headquarters, so watch this space for the announcement of the new challenge plan. So I'm here with my usual Whimsy Wednesday Inspiration post and I think I have quite a fun one for you today!

Inspired by a gorgeous creation I'd seen done by one of my talented teamies Kerys, where she used the Whimsy Stamps 'Blossom Stamp', but left it black and white and paired it with a 'pop' of pink, I created this homage, to her gorgeous creation. I had this candy pink cardstock on my craft table from a recent make and happened to put the 'as yet uncoloured' blossom image on top of it. Of course I had this 'déjà vu' flashback to Kerys' gorgeous design and thought I'd try my hand at this Black & White with a pop of pink creation. I've gotta say, I'd do it again. This is so striking and gorgeous and although I LOVE the way Kerys used the letters to cutout the sentiment and back it with pink. I'm pretty happy with how mine turned out too. Be sure to have a look at her gorgeous original here.

I've used a white doily, backed with white card, so the blossoms don't show through, then added the fab 'LOVE' diecut, which once I'd cut, kept the lil' 'waste' heart from the centre of the 'O' and added some Stickles glue to that for a bit of bling, before popping it up on a deep foam piece for dimension. I wanted to add a little something extra to the design and was rummaging through some of my older Whimsy Stamps dies. I found my lovely dragonfly border and decided to trim a couple of the dragonflies off the border to use here. I added Stickles to their wings too for a little shine and sparkle.

My final touch for this creation was to wrap some candy pink baker's twine around and make a lil bow to the side. The base and doily layers were popped up on foam and so too was the heart, so not so sure this is 'post' friendly, but I love the dimension these layers add. I hope you'll check in to the Whimsy Stamps Facebook page to see when our new challenge idea is ready to go live. While you're there, do check out the awesomeness that is Team Whimsy! From the Digital Divas to the Rubber and Clear Stamps teams, Whimsy has some awesome inspiration coming at you in a steady stream. It's a one stop shop for inspiration! Actually Whimsy is a one stop shop for pretty much any crafty gorgeousness to be fair! So check out this months new releases while you're there. You can click on the banner below to go straight to the shop. Check out the gorgeous Digital Release here. 

Thanks for popping in to visit today. I'll be back again soon with another crafty adventure, until then, have an awesome week and happy crafting! Hugs xoxo

(The Dragonfly Border die is no longer in stock, so is linked to the main dies directory. But I wanted to show your the gorgeousness of the full die! I so love my older Whimsy Stash. Out of stock, does NOT mean out of style!)

Challenge Entries:

Dragonfly Journeys: #124 ~ Flower Power

The Paper Shelter: #349 ~ Punches & Dies

Papercraft Challenges: #18 ~ Summer (Blossoms)

Crafty Gals Corner: #172 ~ Add A Ribbon or Bow

Sweet Stampin' ~ Christmas in August

Hi ya lovely crafty pals, I hope your week is going well. I'm getting in the Christmas spirit again and yep, the kids are groaning in the background because I can't help but hum and sing Christmas tunes while I'm crafting! We are having a Christmas challenge this week at Sweet Stampin', our attempt to help spur you into some Christmas creating before it all gets very last minute!

This lil' cutie that I've used for my creation today is called Carlee's Christmas and is a sweet image by Angie Blom for Unity Stamps. I really do love Unity Stamps. I wish they weren't so darned expensive to have posted over to New Zealand. So I have a cherished few sets and this is for sure a fav' for a slightly different Christmas take or Winter birthday perhaps? I've made this for my daughter for Christmas. I even tried out the 'no lines' technique on this one. I've stamped the image in a lighter brown ink, and then coloured with my Promarkers.

I think the image is just so cute, I really didn't want to embellish much on this creation. I used a lovely paper, straight from Cardmaking & Papercrafts magazine, issue 161. The paper designer is Matilda Smith. I diecut the paper to a rectangular shape which gives it a nice stitched edge. Then I diecut the image with a Kaisercraft Stitched Scalloped Oval Frame. It was a very simple finish for this card. I diecut the number '25' to depict Christmas Day in the Advent countdown and two silver glitter paper snowflakes in different sizes which I layered together and then added a diamante flatback to the centre. So simple, but so pretty I think.

I hope you'll come and join us with your own Christmas creations for our 'Christmas In August' challenge. I'm adding to my Christmas Card pile much faster now that I'm designing for our sister blog Christmas at Sweet Stampin' too, so be sure to come and add your Christmas creations there also! It's always Anything Christmas Goes, as long as there is stamping on it. I'll be back again soon with another crafty adventure. See you then and have a great week. Hugs and happy Christmas crafting, Wends xoxo

Challenge Entries:

Alphabet Challenge: J is for Jingle Bells

Addicted To Stamps & More: #304 ~ CAS

I Love Promarkers: #365 ~ Anything Goes

Always Fun Challenge: #70 ~ Let It Sparkle

The Paper Shelter: Summer ~ Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations Challenge: August ~ Holidays

Christmas With The Cuties: #18 ~ Add Some Sparkle

Merry Little Christmas: #1 ~ August ~ Anything Goes

Sparkles Christmas Challenge: #91 ~ A Krafty Christmas

Penny Black & More: I Spy ~ B is for Brown, Blue and Bird (Penguin)

Southern Girls ~ Add Some Stamping

A warm hello to all my crafty pals today. I am here to share a new challenge at Southern Girls Challenge with you. This fortnight, we'd like to see some 'Stamping' on your projects. We're hoping for a little more than just a sentiment too please. It could be background stamping, grunge stamping, a stamped feature. There's a lot of room for interpretation with this theme. We have two fabulous sponsors this challenge, Altenew and Kinda Cute stamps. So there's two great prizes up for grabs!

I had two very special ladies to celebrate, so made two special cards with a beautiful stamp set from Altenew. This set is called Beautiful Day and has the loveliest old fashioned open rose on it plus some leaves, and buds. It really is a very beautiful set. I didn't buy it for quite a while, because I would have preferred the sentiment to read 'I wish you a beautiful day' or 'wishing you a beautiful day', it just didn't read right to me. But I loved the image so much, I splashed out in the end anyway. 

I coloured the image twice, once in a slightly darker colour palette and the second time in a much softer colour palette. I bought a handful of Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers to see what all the fuss was about and I'm pleased I did, they were lovely to work with. So much richer in colour than I was expecting! Very easy to use and give a lovely rich finish.

I white embossed the outline of the stamp set, masking the bigger roses to add the other stamps around it. I tried some different looks in the top right corner for balance and interest. I like both effect, the more leafy one and the buds, so that was a fun experiment. I kept the rest of the card recipe the same, punching out a tiny heart with my smallest heart punch in the bottom right corner of each image panel, so it showed the colour mat beneath. Just a little touch, but I really love the effect. I used a Sunny Studios Stitched Scalloped Border die to create the coloured mats for both cards. I think they're both lovely in their different colour tones. 

The sentiment stamp I've used is actually from another Altenew set, which has some really lovely inspiring sentiments. It's called Precious Moments and I just knew this sentiment was perfect for both these amazing women. One card was for my mother-in-law's birthday and the other was for my eldest Aunt who just turned 80. She is amazing, both these women are and although my kiddies both suggested it was weird giving two people that same sentiment, when it suggests they are 'the' most amazing person, I can think of a few more incredible women I'd like to use this sentiment for too, including my own mummy! So they just rolled their eyes and left me to it, LOL.

I hope you'll come and play along with me and the rest of the Team Lou lovelies this time for our 'Add Some Stamping' challenge. I can't wait to see what you're inspired to do! With two fabulous prizes up for grabs, it's well worth entering! I'll be back soon with another crafty adventure, in the meantime, have a fabulous week and happy crafting! Hugs, Wends xoxo

Challenge Entries:
The Paper Girls: #157 ~ Paint It

Addicted To Stamps: #304 ~ CAS
Dragonfly Journey: #124 ~ Flower Power
Tuesday Throwdown: #404 ~ Anything Goes
Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends: #87 ~ Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments: #209 ~ For the Girls + A Sentiment
Fashionable Stamping Challenge: #137 ~ Use Those Inks Anyway You Want
Stamping Sensations: August ~ Use Your Current Favourite Stamp (my absolute fav' floral stamp)

Christmas at Sweet Stampin' ~ New Beginnings

Hey there lovelies. I am so happy to share with you today, that I'm now designing with the Christmas at Sweet Stampin' team. Lovely for me, as I know a lot of the team from the Sweet Stampin' crew. I have wanted to join the Christmas team for a while, as I know it's the only way I'll actually get enough cards created for Christmas! So when I knew they were looking for newbies, I threw my hat in the ring. It's a monthly challenge for those who've not come across this challenge before and it's always, 'Anything Christmas Goes'. With one proviso, there must be stamping on your creation, as it is a stamping challenge after all.

I have used a gorgeous digital stamp from Just Inklined to create this card. I've used my Promarkers for this creation and added some glittery sparkle where the snow falls. I used a couple of Christmas themed postmarks from Marianne Design in the top corners just for a bit of interest and fun, but kept the rest of the design very CAS, just inking the panel edges to finish.

I didn't use a sentiment on the front of the card, just the fun postmarks, so wanted to use one inside the card. I chose a Kaisercraft Christmas sentiment for this. I'll have to hunt down the stamp set name, as it's an older one and I can't recall now. I've managed to bury it under piles of stash! LOL.

I've popped the image panel up on foam for dimension and used a fab black with white polka dots paper for the background. That's my first card for Christmas at Sweet Stampin' done! But I've soooo many more to prepare yet for Christmas! So I'm keeping going. 

I hope you'll come and share your own Christmas creations with us this month. Anything Christmas Goes, as long as there's some stamping. Do check out what my awesomely talented teamies did for their DT inspiration this month too, you're sure to be inspired! I'll be back again soon, with another crafty adventure. Until then, happy Christmas crafting! Hugs, Wends xoxo

Challenge Entries:

Addicted To Stamps: #304 ~ CAS

Alphabet Challenge: J is For Jingle Bells

Back To Basics: #9 ~ Use A Digital Image

I Love Promarkers: #365 ~ Anything Goes

Always Fun Challenges: #70 ~ Let It Sparkle

Merry Christmas Challenge: Jul~Aug Challenge

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends: #87 ~ Anything Goes

Christmas with the Cuties: #18 ~ Add Some Sparkle

ABC Christmas Challenge: PQ&R = Plain, Quote, Robin

Crafty Calendar Challenge: August ~ Dots and/or Stripes

Whimsy Wednesday ~ Penguin Skiing

Hey there lovely crafty pals. I'm here with a super cute and very fun kinetic creation today. I've used a whopping 7 different Whimsy Stamps items in this creation and had such a blast making it. I've even taken a little video of the kinetic element of this creation in action. You can click the video below for a peek at that.

I started my creation with the idea that I wanted this cute lil' skiing penguin, a gorgeous Winter stamp by Crissy Armstrong, to move down the card as though he was skiing down a slope. Now this is really easy to bring to life through the Slip 'n' Slide Dies designed by Nina-Marie Trapani for Whimsy Stamps. I wanted to obscure the channel, so it wasn't overly obvious and the easiest way to do this, is to glue down the little strip of paper to the base of the card, that is cut away when creating this channel. This gives a continuation in the paper design and makes it less obvious that there is a channel there. 

To create the channel and ensure that the kinetic element slides freely, I did a few things to assist this. The first was to choose a thin foam that toned with the beautiful snowflake papers by Crissy Armstrong that I used as the scene base. This ensures that if any is visible through the channel it doesn't make the channel obvious by being a different colour. I just use coloured foam from the kids craft section for this. It's great and comes in lots of colours. 

I freehand traced around the channel by first lining up the channel waste in the paper and laying it over the foam. I carefully removed the main paper leaving the channel in place and then traced around it. I cut into the foam with scissors and allowed a small margin all around the sides of the channel, so the kinetic discs can slide freely, then cut away the foam to leave a slightly larger foam channel. 

After this, I set aside the foam, and put the paper back together with the channel that was cut. I then added liquid glue with a Zig Glue Pen and very carefully turned it, keeping the paper and channel together, laying it over the white base layer of the card and adhering the glued channel waste to the white base card. I lined it all up very carefully so it was nicely centred before pressing down the little wiggly strip of channel waste, to create that base layer, that keeps the paper design continuity when the card is finished.

I added glue tape all over the base of the foam, paying careful attention to bring the tape right up around the foam channel edges, so it adhered well to the base and wouldn't be loose and interfere with the sliding mechanism. I then did exactly the same to the top side of the foam, which was cut slightly narrower around the sides than the designer paper and finally brought the paper over it, lining up the diecut waste from the channel to fit directly beneath the raised foam and paper layer. This gives a really lovely continuous paper effect and makes the channel less obvious, giving a nicer finish to the card.

The little discs to create the slider are part of the Slip 'n' Slide die set. I cut them from some firm waste acetate packaging, then stuck them together with a tiny circle of double sided adhesive foam that I used a standard size hand held hole punch to make. You could just use a firm cardstock for this, but I like the way, the acetate slides so freely over the base paper. I printed the beautiful Winter's Magic Blue Digital Papers by Crissy Armstrong on 250gsm cardstock, so it was heavy enough to carry the slider mechanism without buckling.

This adorable Whimsy Stamps penguin image is by Crissy Armstrong and is called Penguin Skiier 2. I've coloured him with my Copic Markers. I added a tiny bit of Wink of Stella to his ski goggles for a little bit of sheen and that was him done. I love his yellow scarf and hat. I thought it was such a fun joyful colour for this creation. I think he's utterly adorable!

I created a snowbank which I'd embossed with two different folders for a bit of fun and then added a little cluster of trees at the top of the snowbank and one down the bottom. I used the cute little tree die from the Camper's Road Trip die set. It's only available now in the June Bonus Bundle, but if you're keen on that and the Slip 'n' Slide die set too, it's a steal, as they're both in this Super Saver set.

I've used two lovely dies to create the sentiment. The Christmas Large Word Die and one of the words from the Wonderland Word Die Set. I cut them from silver glitter cardstock for a bit of bling and sparkle. I adhered them to the paper with Zig Glue Pen. The final touch was to add a snowflake from the Snowflake Dies by Nina-Marie Trapani. I added Wink of Stella to it, but felt last minute it needed a little something else, and added a tiny sparkly gem from Rosie's Studio Glass House range.

If you made it all the way to the end of this mammoth post, well done and thanks for bearing with my extensive explanations. The thumbnails at the end of the post will take you straight through to the store for a closer peek at the elements I used for this card. I hope you enjoyed seeing how this kinetic card was created.

Do pop over to the Whimsy Stamps Facebook Group where there is a constant stream of lovely inspiration from the Wider Whimsy Design Team. They're such a talented team, and you're sure to be inspired by their gorgeous creations. I'll be back again soon with another crafty adventure. Hugs and happy crafting xoxo

 

 

 

Challenge Entries:
Craft Rocket: #51 ~ Anything Goes
Lemon Shortbread: #73 ~ Anything Goes
Back To Basics: #9 ~ Use A Digital Image
Always Fun Challenges: #70 ~ Let It Sparkle
The Paper Shelter: Summer ~ Anything Goes
Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends: #87 ~ Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create: Magic or Fantasy (I think a skiing penguin is pretty fantastical! LOL)

Whimsy Stamps August New Releases ~ Day 3 ~ Southern Style

Hey there lovely blogland pals. I'm back today with my second creation for our New Release showcases. It's day 3 so all the New Releases have been shared by the DT. You can see all the gorgeous inspiration creations over on our Whimsy Stamps Facebook Page. I'm sharing my second Release Week creation with you using a super fun image by Crissy Armstrong which is part of a set of images. I've used just the Cowboy Hat, some know as a 'Stetson', but strictly speaking this is a well known Cowboy hat brand, not a hat shape.

I printed the image onto some woodgrain paper that I thought kinda worked for this creation. You wouldn't have a 'wooden' hat, I know, but it does kinda work don't you think?! I went over the lines in black Memento Fineliner to deepen the lines, so it showed up better on the darker paper and added some shadow here and there with 3 shades of brown Copic Marker. Last minute, I added this doily I'd cut from kraft paper. It's actually several layers of kraft packing paper. I diecut through all the layers together and it left a barely cut finish, which I thought was really cool, so I didn't remove the diecut pieces. I just stuck it down as is and fingers crossed the lil' bits won't all start falling out!! I layered this over a hessian circle. Everything was stuck down very well with my favourite Olba glue. Perfect for tricky things like hessian.

I added some interest to the card by putting a lil' lasso around the sentiment chipboard element. Olba glue worked a treat for sticking this to the uneven paper layers, allowing me to 'level' it out over them. Don't you just LOVE that moustache paper?! I sure do. The paper stack I've used is a Kaisercraft paper pad...

I have some gorgeous older dies from Whimsy Stamps that are perfect for Western style craft projects. Some of you may remember this previous creation that was made with all three of the dies from this fab' Whimsy Stamps Cowboy Die set. On this occasion, I've only used the cowboy boots, but I really wanted to use the other dies, too, just couldn't work out how to fit everything in, and sometimes, less is more right?!

The hessian paper in the background is from a Kaisercraft Christmas 12x12 paper pad, which I thought made a nice background for this design. I added the other Kaisercraft papers on top, then a Whimsy Corner Die that I added an eyelet to for a bit of rustic fun. I also punched three holes in the bottom left corner and added eyelets there too for that fun bit of metallic finish that works well on these kinds of cards. I've had some 'cork' ribbon in my stash for a while that I wanted to use on this creation, so added that behind the bandana paper and fishtailed the ends. 

Do head on over to the Facebook page for a peek at what my teamies got up to for this August New Release of Whimsy Stamps images. I'll be back with my usual Whimsy Wednesday post next week so I'll see you then. Hugs and happy crafting xoxo

  

Older Whimsy Dies Now Out of Production

Challenge Entries:

Craft Rocket: #51 ~ Anything Goes

Lemon Shortbread: #73 ~ Anything Goes

Creative Moments: #149 ~ Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday: #541 ~ Anything Goes

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Wild Things

Love To Craft: #25 ~ August ~ Anything Goes

Crafty Creations Challenge: #371 ~ Anything Goes

Moving Along With The Times: #77 ~ For The Boys