Some Penguins And A Frog

Hello … bonjour … and bon dimanche!  I have a couple of designs to share today that are a bit of fun … and might even bring you a smile 🙂 .  After all, smiles are always good for us … maybe even more so than usual given what’s going on in the world.  Here ‘s the first …

This was made for someone with a Saint Patrick’s Day birthday … hence the colour palette.  The penguins are from The Cats Pajamas and were coloured with Zigs and a waterbrush.  As you can see, one of them stands out from the crowd with his dapper jewelled bow tie, black beak and yellow/orange feathers (as opposed to the yellow/orange beaks and black feathers of his compatriots).  They’re all standing on a stamped banner from Papertrey that was over stamped with a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp.  This is such a fun set that can be used for masculine and feminine cards, depending on what colour palette is used … whoever said penguins had to be black in card making world?  Here are a couple of other masculine ones I made using the same design …

    

… and I’m thinking pink or coral feathers would be good for some feminine ones … and p’raps a necklace or maybe a bow on the hats … what d’you think?

These Saint Patrick’s Day birthday penguins are heading to (badges below) …

Addicted To Stamps And More – Anything Goes

CAS Watercolour – Luck Of The Irish

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour – Anything Goes … no flower option

Seize The Birthday – Touch of Green

Watercooler Wednesday – Anything Goes With A Masculine Twist

My second design is QACAS (Darnell-ese for Quick And Clean And Simple) …

The crimped frame die cut aperture is from The Greetery … a Penny Black Stickeroo frog leapt into the open space from inside the card (you can imagine my surprise) … and once he’d settled down a little, I nestled the birthday sentiment from Papertrey right by the celebratory balloon.  Here’s what he looks like when the card is upright …

… energetic chap isn’t he?

He’s bouncing over to (badges below) …

Addicted To Stamps And More – Anything Goes

CAS On Friday – Birthday

Penny Black Saturday – Anything Goes … maybe with the Think Spring option … he is springing!

Seize The Birthday – Touch of Green

I hope and pray that you’re all staying safe and well out there … keep smiling 🙂 .  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!   Anita 🙂

   

         

    

A Flower Cluster … Or Two!

Hello … bonjour … hope your week is starting well!  Today I have a couple of cards to share, the first of which is going to be joining in some current challenges (see below).  The second, which is similar, is a bonus … and was fun to make look slightly different, even though the basic design and main supplies were the same.  Here’s the first …

The leaves and flowers were die cut from coloured cardstock … I sponged over Distress Ink to give them depth … and used a white gel pen to add definition and highlights.  They’re arranged on various levels of foam dots on a die cut striped pp panel, which had been adhered flat to the card base.  The sentiment is from Simon … all the die cuts are from Concord & 9th.

Here’s my bonus card …

I dropped the design from the upper third to the lower third of the card … used the same floral and leafy die cuts, this time in yellow with black detailing (also sponged with Distress Ink) … and cut a banner from the same striped pp.  The sentiment, from Simon, was stamped onto a foam mounted banner that was trimmed to mimic the pp strip.  Voilà … similar … though just a little  different … I like them both equally … d’you have a favourite?

I’m joining in the fun at …

Color Throwdown – Lavender, Green, Grey

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

Seize The Birthday – Show Me Your White Space

The Flower Challenge – Add Leaves

Watercooler Wednesday – All About Occasions

Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

             

      

Twofer Card Challenge #18 – Garden

Hello … bonjour!   We’ve just planted our new challenge over at Twofer this morning … this month we’re inviting you to join us in the …

… here’s what grew in mine …

… a sweep of garden flowers to celebrate a birthday … and a bed full of blooms to say hello, both featuring a large image from Pinkfresh Studio’s Fleur 1 (now retired, though a similar style set is here).  Here’s a closer look at each one …

… first, a one layer card with the large image stamped slightly off the card in the bottom left corner.  I added some additional individual flowers and leaves (also Pinkfresh Studio) … and some doodling … to fill in gaps and create the sweep of garden plants down the folded edge and across the bottom of the card.  It was all loosely watercoloured with Zigs and a water brush.  The sentiment, from Winnie & Walter and Clearly Besotted, runs along the imaginary line at the top one third of the card and was stamped in Delicata Silver (to match the garden stamping).

My twofer is another conventional use of the image …

… this time stamped in Versafine black into the middle of a die cut, scalloped, pierced panel (from Winnie & Walter) … and grounded in the earth along the bottom on a simple, scripty sentiment from Technique Tuesday.  I coloured the image with Catherine Pooler and Distress Inks, added some little black gems to the larger flower centres and popped the panel up on craft foam onto the card base.

Voilà … my two distinctly different designs … for two distinctly different occasions … using the same stamp!

How might you interpret our ‘Garden’ prompt?  We’d love to see you in our gallery with your two distinctly different takes on it!  All the details you need, including rules and FAQs, are over at the Twofer blog … along with heaps of gorgeous ideas from the DT to help spark your imagination.  This month, we also have bitter-sweet news of some changes in the Team … as we bid a fond farewell to the inspirational Loll, who is stepping down as a Designer (though, we’re pleased to say, is staying on as Administrator) … and a happy hello and warm welcome to the very talented Cat from Cat Luvs Paper, who has joined us.  Our Guest Designers are our winners from May’s challenge … Kathy from My Asperations and Robyn from Waterlily Cards by Robyn … welcome ladies!  Do go and enjoy a visit with Kathy and Robyn … you’ll find lots of loveliness to explore … and you can always say hello while you’re there!

My sweep of garden flowers is heading to …

AAA Birthday – For The Girls

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour – Anything Goes, No Wings Option

Less Is More – Celebrations

Seize The Birthday – Anything Goes, No Sunshine Topping

The Flower Challenge – Pretty Pastels

… and my blooming flower bed is joining in at …

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour – Anything Goes, No Wings Option

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

The Flower Challenge – Pretty Pastels

Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

                 

               

Twofer Card Challenge #16 – Things With Wheels

Hello … bonjour!  We’re rolling out our May challenge at Twofer today … with a prompt that should get those imaginative cogs turning!  This month we’re playing with …

… here’s the spin my imagination took …

A missing you card for a sweet friend and a colourful happy birthday card, both featuring an image from The Cat’s Pajamas.  Here’s a closer look at each one …

A simple, one layer card with Long Eared Bunny driving away into the distance, having been visiting with a friend.  The road is from Essentials By Ellen, and LEB and his well loaded car are coloured with alcohol markers.  I doodled some puffs of exhaust smoke and added the Simon sentiment … and couldn’t leave him without a little shimmer (Spectrum Noir) on the chrome and shine (Glossy Accents) on those new tyres.  If you look closely, you’ll see a little moistness in his eyes … after all, he’s missing his far away friend already!

My twofer makes unconventional use of this image … I turned the wheels into an abstract, vibrant pattern …

It took rather a while to come up with this design and by the time I had, time was of the essence in getting it finished (deadline looming!).  So I threw caution to the wind, called on my creative guardian angel, pulled out my Memento Dew Drop ink pads and an acrylic block … and started inking and stamping onto a white card panel.  The points on the pads meant I could ink up just the wheel and wing part of the image precisely, doing away with the need to do any masking.  After a quick practice on some copy paper, I just eyeballed it … ink, stamp once, ink, invert the image, match up the wheel, stamp again … repeat in the next colour.  The little blocks created where the wings overlapped one another were filled in with the matching ink.  Isn’t it wonderful when winging it actually works first time … phew!  The main hugs sentiment (Papertrey) was cut into the wheel pattern and into black craft foam, I popped the panel up on craft foam on the card base, glued the two hugs together and added them back into their space.  The additional sentiment is from Simon, white heat embossed on black, trimmed to a strip and popped up on foam tape.  I finished off with a scattering of silver stars and irridescent sequins to add a little birthday magic.

How about rolling along with us with some wheels of your own … we’d love to see your cards in our gallery!  You can find out everything you need to know in the rules and FAQs over at the Twofer blog.  There’s a whole heap of wonderful inspiration to enjoy there too … from our talented Guest Designers, Hilary from Fiddling About and Cornelia from Stempel Spass … and from our fabulous DT.  Do go over for a visit with both Hilary and Cornelia … as well as their Twofer cards, you’ll find a whole load of fabulous cards and inspiration … you won’t want to miss it!

Long Eared Bunny is going to be stopping off at …

Inkspirational – Adventure

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – For A Special Lady

The Paper Players – Life Is Better With Friends

… and hugs are going over to …

AAA Birthday – Anything Goes

Seize The Birthday – No Toppings

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Add Something Metallic (the stars)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – For A Special Lady

Watercooler Wednesday – All About Occasions

Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

        

       

 

 

 

Twofer Card Challenge #13 – Stars

Hello … bonjour!  Our new challenge at Twofer has just started … this time around our theme is positively heavenly … it’s …

… here are my celestial designs …

One of the things I discovered when coming up with ideas for my cards was that there are very, very few starry stamps in my stash … what a serious omission!  What I was delighted to come across was a stencil from Winnie and Walter (my common image) … double delight actually … not only the stars … but a chance to play with stencilling too, something I’ve rarely done.  Here’s a closer look at my first design …

… a star covered birthday gift. Here I stencilled the stars in three Distress Ink colours onto a mixed media panel, moving the stencil’s orientation with each change of ink so that there was no overlapping.  The panel was trimmed to size, I sponged the edges to add definition, did some gentle silver splattering over it and silver heat embossed the Papertrey strings.  The WPlus9 tiny tag was die cut and sponged round the edges … and silver heat embossed with a smidge of the tied string (where it’s threaded through the hole) and with the Uniko birthday sentiment.  The miniscule stars around the sentiment are from Winnie and Walter.  The tag was popped up on foam tape on the package … and the package was popped up on the card base.

My twofer stars …

… a starry Christmas card.  Here, I used the stencil just the once, sponging over gold Delicata ink, stamped tiny silver dots (Winnie and Walter) between the stars and edged the panel with gold washi tape.   The sentiment is from Papertrey, stamped in gold and mounted over silver washi.  This isn’t how this design started out … it was originally one layer … the stars and dots weren’t coralled by the washi but were spilling out across the middle of the card in a playful, unstructured sort of a way.  However … when washi tape that was destined for the bottom edge of the card stuck where it shouldn’t have been and I pulled it off too quickly, my finished OLC was left with an ugly torn surface.  Oh dear (bet you can just hear me saying that!) … what to do … start from scratch or do a rescue job?  I rescued … by trimming out the unstructured spilling out stars and dots and edging them with the washi.  The first version was fun … this one is clean and crisp … and in the end I’d have been happy with either (which is p’raps as well really!).

What comes into your creative mind when you think of stars?  We’d love to see!  All the details about how to play along are over at the Twofer blog … together with with heaps of splendid starry inspiration from the DT.  We’re delighted to have two Guest Designers with us this month … Barb from Barb’s Studio Creations and Cat from Cat Luvs Paper … welcome ladies!  If you’re not familiar with Barb’s and Cat’s fabulous work, you’ll really want to go and have a visit with them both … there’s so much delicious inspiration to enjoy and absorb!  Even if you are familiar, pop along anyway … you can always say hello while you’re there!

My birthday gift is heading to …

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

Seize The Birthday – Anything Goes … without the black and white topping

Uniko – 7th Birthday Party … many congratulations, Bev and all the team past and present!

Watercooler Wednesday – Feminine Anything Goes

… and my celestial sky is joining in at …

CAS Christmas – Peace

Happy Little Stampers Christmas – With Star Option

Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

                   

                   

Twofer Card Challenge #8 – Geometric

Hello … bonjour!  Welcome to our latest Twofer Card Challenge!  This month, we have a cool, stylish and fun prompt … it’s …

Here’s where I went with it …

My common stamp here is the small triangle from Papertrey‘s Sketched Shapes … I love the interest that the scribbly pattern adds … and triangles are so versatile!  How about a closer look at each card?

         

Here I created a random pattern of overlapping triangles on my one layer card, using four different blue hues, pointing down and up towards the oversized Simon Says Stamp greeting, which was nestled into them.  The birthday sentiment and the random dots on the triangles (Simon Says Stamp Lots of Dots) were silver heat embossed … adds a bit of shine without being too much for a masculine card.

My Twofer …

Doesn’t that single triangle stamp make a cute cluster of Christmas trees?  The bottom layer on each tree is the same triangle as on my first card.  Thanks to a negative mask that I hand cut in the shape of the tree, I could stamp the layers (which diminish in size as the trees get taller) and the trunks … with the same triangle stamp.  I used the positive part of the mask to protect the two front trees while the background one was stamped through the mask.  The sentiment is from WPlus9, heat embossed in gold and the trees are dressed in gold foil stars and Santa red bling. There’s a smidge of shading under the trees, though it’s hard to see here.  The finished panel was adhered to a card base that had been trimmed top and bottom with gold washi tape.

Voilà … my two distinctly different designs … for two distinctly different occasions … using the same stamp!

How will your imagination use our ‘Geometric’ prompt this month?  Will you go conventional or unconventional … or both, as I did?  We’d love to see what you create in our gallery.   All the details you need to play along are over at the Twofer blog … along with plenty of delicious ideas from the DT to get those artistic juices flowing.   We’re delighted to have two Guest Designers with us this time round … welcome to Cheryl from Paper Panacea and Brenda from Inkspired to Stamp, who also have some wonderful inspiration for you.  Do pop over and see both Cheryl and Brenda … there’s so much to see and enjoy over on their blogs … and they’ll be delighted you called!

My graphic masculine card is heading to …

Addicted to CAS – Masculine

Addicted to Stamps & More – Clean And Simple

CAS-ual Fridays – Stamp A Pattern

Seize The Birthday – No Water Option

Watercoolor Wednesday – All About Occasions

… and my Christmas tree cluster is cavorting over with …

CAS Christmas – Tree

Happy Little Stampers Christmas – No Sequins Option

SSS Monday – Add Some Tape

Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

               

            

          

A Few Florals!

Hello … bonjour!  Hope you’re having a good summer or winter, depending where you are … and a happy weekend.  I have three cards to share today … and I’m delighted to be blogging them before the deadlines pass on challenges I’d like to link up with!  First into the spotlight,  a fresh card that turned out to be especially QACAS (quick and clean and simple in Darnellese) …

I won a GC from Altenew recently via Therese at Lost in Paper (thanks, Therese!) … and this one layer card was made with one of the sets I got with it.   I used the rock and roll technique to stamp the flower heads in two blues … it added a little dimension and some extra definition to the edges.  The flower centres were done in the darker of the two blues and I added the grey leaves … before finishing with the shiny heat embossed sentiment and a touch of stickles in the middle of each bloom. Forget me nots?  They look a bit like that to my eyes!

I’m playing along with (badges are at the bottom of the post) …

Altenew – Inspiration/Colours (below)

Inkspirational – An Under 10 Minute Card … it was close, 9’51 as I added the last Stickles!

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

Next up, some rainbow-y goodness …

A watercoloured rainbow panel with a Poppy Stamps bloom die cut from it and inset into it, adhered flat to a white mat with a WPlus9 sentiment stamped along the bottom edge.  I scored lines onto the card base before mounting the finished panel onto it on craft foam and adding a couple of tiny black pearls to the flower centres.

I’m joining in at (badges are at the bottom of the post) …

AAA Cards – Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

Poppy Stamps – Birthday Party

Seize The Birthday – Stripes … the scored ones

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

Finally, a bright, summery, colourful little number …

Another one layer card, this time stamp layered with the second set I got with my Altenew GC.  The sentiment is from Winnie and Walter and the supplementary greeting is from Simon Says Stamp.  I added some black gel pen dots to the flower centres and a fine black line along the crease edge to tie them in to the black greeting.

These florals are going to be blooming at (badges are at the bottom of the post) …

Fusion – Inspiration (below) … all those lovely colours at that summer picnic

Seize The Birthday – No Option … unless a line counts as a stripe!

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

That’s it for me … I’ll be back on Thursday with a little something for the new challenge starting then at Time Out.  In the meantime, thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂