Funky purple thanks

Hello! So who is still doing The Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge? I'm still going, with the odd hiatus - sometimes you have to do housework! This card was inspired by Kathy Racoosin's Day 8 post, where she created an amazing card background just using a roll of tape and markers. It was pretty inspiring, so I came up with my own interpretation. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll have seen the first few photos, but not the finished product!

Basically I started with a piece of watercolour paper and took a couple of my Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Circles and drew around them in a random pattern with some of my purple Spectrum Aquas, overlapping to create the different shapes. I then got to colouring in between the lines using all my different purple and blue markers and pencils - from my Spectrum Aquas, to my lonely blue Inktense and my Caran D'Ache water colours and my Artists pencils too. This was the result:

It looked a bit odd with the water colour pencil as is, so I blended those bits with water to soften it up. In hindsight, I shouldn't have used a water colour marker to draw the circles - they naturally bled a bit, and it looks a bit messy up close. You don't get anywhere by not experimenting though!

Pretty funky, but what to do with it? I've seen some great inlaid die cutting on cards, so after watching a Jennifer McGuire video and one from Lawn Fawn, I got busy with my CB Thanks die cutting it out from the corner of the funky panel and then several from white card stock:

I then glued the white Thanks together using my new bottle of Ranger Multi Medium Matte with its precision tip - that makes it much easier! - and then added the coloured panel on top. To stick it back into the panel, I put some double sided sticky tape on the back of the panel so the blank space for the thanks was now sticky. I stuck it on carefully, and put back in with my tweezers all the little extra die cut pieces from the 't' and 'h' and 'a' etc. Blimey, that is fiddly work!

I then simply attached it to my card blank. It's quite subtle because it blends in with the background, but some Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents help it pop out a bit more.

[Supplies: Water colour card; Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Circle Dies (out of stock where I purchased them); Spectrum Aqua - Floral; Derwent Artists' Pencils; Caran D'Ache Prismallo Aquarelles; Derwent Inktense Pencils; Clearly Besotted Thanks die; Wink of Stella; Glossy Accents; Ranger Multi Medium Matte; Precision tip; Double sided tape]

Thank you so much for reading and have a lovely weekend :)

CAS-ual Fridays CFC139 - Happy 4th Birthday!

I've decided to try my hand at another challenge, this time CAS-ual Fridays. I love popping along to their blog during the weeks the challenge is on and seeing what people create. The colours appealed to me this time, so I've given it a go. Honestly, my creations are nothing compared to the beautiful cards some people come up with, but it's all about practice, so here you are. I've come up with two because I always like to use the negative from a die cut where I can - waste not want not!

I started with some white card blanks and chose my turquoise and orange from my Papermania Capsule collection. I die cut the circles using my Spellbinders Nestabilities standard circles (large) and the dragonflies using the free die from Simply Cards and Papercraft issue 134. I adhered a dragonfly to its opposite colour circle before attaching as seen. The sentiment dies are from Clearly Besotted - happy and birthday - and die cut from my Papermania collection. I used some Stick It! I got from Make the Day Special - it's great stuff for intricate dies. I fussy cut the happy birthday from some white cardstock before adhering with foam tape to add a bit of lift. I've added a few sequins from the Lucy Abrams sequin mixes I bought with my last purchase from Clearly Besotted Stamps - this one is Glacier. They really are beautiful. 

This card is made from the negative of the happy birthday with a dragonfly and sequins as above. It's a tent fold this time. I tell you, getting all the little extra bits of paper from the die for the 'a' and 'h' etc was rather fiddly! 

So there you are, another challenge - that makes three this month. I'm getting carried away!

Thanks for reading, hope you've all had a good Monday!

I like big books...

I bought a few nice things in the March release from Clearly Besotted Stamps. I do so love their style! The Bookworm Additions I had to have because I'm a librarian by profession and have lots of librarian and also book loving friends who will appreciate this... if only for the pun on the flag!

I have some Kraft card I bought a few weeks ago as I kept seeing it mentioned in various magazines and blogs. I'm not entirely sure I like it, but I'm willing to give it a go. I also hadn't used any lovely Bazzill for a while, so I grabbed some of my browns as I thought it would go with the Kraft. Who knew I'd like brown so much?

I started by stamping one of the books from the Bookworms set using my old favourite, Memento Tuxedo Black and colouring it in with my Derwent pencils with a bit of metallic from my new Caran D'Ache set. I stamped the two bookworms (one from the main set, the other from additions), plus the flag with my Versa Magic Dew Drops - Hint of Pesto, Aloe Vera, Perfect Plumeria - and then die cut them out.

I took some Bazzill card stock and cut to size to layer on the Kraft. I then die cut a circle using my Nestabilities Circles, from the top piece. It is just wide enough to show the bookcase behind it. I glued the bookcase to the back card, then stuck the bookworms to the back of the top piece of card, so they'd be in front of the books (they are a bit cheeky those bookworms!). I then attached the top piece with foam tape to add a bit of dimension. The banner I also adhered with foam pads.

It makes me laugh and I hope it does you too! Thanks for reading :)

Birds on a Wire - From me to you

I started a card on Friday whilst baby was napping and toddler was at nursery. She's been a bit poorly this week, so it didn't last long and I only managed to finish it this morning whilst she was napping and toddler was watching CBeebies. Didn't take long, just needed a bit of glue and a sentiment.

I decided to try my hand at one of the cards I saw in Simply Cards and Papercraft, with the idea of having something interesting on the inside of the card, in my case, viewed from an aperture. 

I started with a 6x6" card blank in Bazzill Cardshoppe in a nice blue shade. I found another shade of blue Bazzill Basics in my stash and cut it 1/4" smaller than the card front and added another layer in cream Bazzill Basics 1/4" smaller still on top - that's a bit long winded for mat and layering! I cut a circle aperture on the bottom right of the card top using my Spellbinders Nestabilities Circles dies. Next I took the card front and cut a circle in the larger size. I then took some watercolour paper and using my Derwent Inktense pencils, made some blocks of colour which I brushed with water and used to die cut out the Spellbinders 'Birds on a wire' (a Christmas present that I've finally found a project for!). I stamped the sentiment (Clearly Besotted Mini Basic Banners) onto the inside of the card using Memento Tuxedo Black and affixed the birds to the card top, then the card top to the card front and there you are! 

I love the blues and I feel it needs an envelope - time to crack out the envelope board :)

Bicycle Note

During baby's long nap on Thursday I also managed to rustle up a little note card. I'm liking that I'm building up a little card collection to dip into as and when I need one. 

For this, I just used a pre-cut A6 card blank. For some background colour, I used an off cut of the light green Bazzill Cardshoppe I had left over from Valentine's Day card. I then topped this with a die cut circle of white Bazzill Basic, using one of the Spelbinders Nestabilities Small Circles. The bicycle is from the Good Times die collection from Clearly Besotted and is cut from Bazzill Bling cardstock in pink. I love the bicycle. It's the best purchase so far as I've used it several times already, along with the co-ordinating stamps. I stuck it onto the circle with foam pads. The sentiment is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black from Clearly Besotted's Sweet Little Sentiments stamps (my latest purchase). I added a couple of stick on crystals and there you are. Now, who to send it to?