A bit of Mixed Medley creepiness

Halloween is creeping up behind us (aaaargh!) so I thought I'd make my annual foray into spookiness, inspired by the colours at ColourQ and this week's One Layer Wednesday challenge, hosted by Cheryl, to 'Make a Halloween card'.

This is a simple card that relies on the fabulous mix of colours for its impact. I masked off two thirds of the card front with a post it note and sponged the three colours over the remaining third. When the mask was peeled away, the spiders web from Mixed Medley was stamped over the top and a sentiment added. Finally I drew in additional spidey threads with the fine end of my black marker so that the web didn't float about - believe me, I consider spiders' webs quite spooky enough without them being haunted as well!

You know, I didn't have a minute to join in with One Layer Wednesday last week but the challenge was very dear to my heart - Susan's challenge was to 'use one stamp two different ways'. I've completely missed the deadline of course but I'd been dying to do this with my zebra from Zoo Review:

Of course she can be a pony! I just went round the edges of the zebra with my Early Espresso marker, stamped the image, coloured in with Soft Suede ink and an aquapainter and added a mane and tail. Have you noticed how much taller the zebra looks? That is simply because I stamped that sentiment underneath the image! The pony looks quite stubby, bless her little cotton socks - a bit like a Thelwell pony but without the wicked thoughts!

Here's what you'll need to make the halloween card

Stamps: Mixed Medley, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Rich Razzleberry, More Mustard, Tangerine Tango, stazon black

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Basic Black marker, stamp-a-majig
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593.

My morphing zebra made me think of one of my daughters favourite remarks: "They said I could be anything... so I became cold." Hmm, I know the feeling - I'm off to get a cardi!

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your crafting!

Three bits of CAS sunshine!

Aargh! What a day! My husband is away today so I gleefully spread my crafting supplies around the house and got down to catching up with my favourite challenges. I was thrilled to see that the challenge at Less is More today is 'Three of Anything' which, I thought in my innocence, would fit in nicely with the new CASology challenge of 'Sun' and I could even use this week's gorgeous ColourQ palette... Here's the card I came up with (see if you can spot the problem):

Three sunflowers! I used my large square punch to make them into faux chipboard tiles by glueing together a stack of Chocolate Chip squares (am I making you hungry?) and topping with the flower image.

Before stamping the flowers, I coloured the rubber directly with Daffodil Delight and More Mustard markers. Once they were stamped, I blended the colours with the Daffodil one. The centres were stamped in Chocolate Chip ink on More Mustard card stock, cut out with my 1/2" circle punch and popped up with dimensionals. Using an image from French Foliage, I added Pear Pizzazz leaves after masking the flower and sponged round the edges of the tiles.

The tiles are mounted on textured card stock and then attached to a Naturals Ivory card base which had been scored to make a home for them. The sentiment is from the wonderful Pocket Silhouettes set and was added with my stamp-a-majig to make sure it was straight.

Of course you all know what's wrong don't you: while this card fits well with the Sun theme at CASology and the colours at ColourQ, it's one layer week at Less is More and I don't think Chrissie and Mandi will let me get away with this one! Grrr... of course I had to go off and make another card then!

This one uses the group of three tea cups from Tea Shoppe - very handy! I stamped them onto a Naturals Ivory card base and added definition with a blue watercolour pencil. Then I masked them and made a swirly tablecloth pattern with a couple of the Everything Eleanor stamps.

I was rather proud of my 'steam' - can you see it? To make it I squashed the lid of my Baja Breeze ink pad so that when I opened it there was a pool of ink in the lid, and used my aquapainter to paint a wavy line from each cup which fades as it goes up.

The cups needed 'grounding' so I scribbled shadows with a So Saffron marker and added a hint of blue. Finally, I stamped the sentiment, using my stamp-a-majig.

Well this is a mammoth post so I do beg your pardon if you've all gone to sleep and I won't list the supplies I've used as I would normally (just email me if you want more info). Instead, I'll leave you with a giggle: I was planning to take my youngest son to a party in Towcester earlier. "I wonder how long it'll take to get to Towcester?" I wondered aloud. "Oh, it's only a few seconds to get to the kitchen," said my daughter waggishly. Yes, this is the kind of smart talking I have to contend with!

Edited to add: Towcester, by the way, is pronounced 'toaster'.

Thanks for looking here today and putting up with my waffling. See you soon,

Thank you unmounted Henry!

Have you seen the builder wheels? There are lots of different designs that are intended for fixing into a roller handle either alone or with up to two other wheels. They're great fun, but sometimes I look at them and think how versatile they would be as a stamp - so I take them off the wheel, mount them onto foam mount (like this) and use them with an acrylic block. My longest acrylic block isn't quite long enough for them to completely fit on, but it doesn't seem to matter! Come and see what I did with Henry:

Henry is a wonderful linear argyle print! I've used my markers to colour the rubber before stamping and finished with a sentiment embellished with a little leaf.  Here's a close up of the pattern:

The inspiration to make today's card came from three different sources: I've used the colour swatch from this week's wonderful ColourQ challenge...

The One Layer Wednesday challenge is to be inspired by something from your kitchen and I chose this packaging:

And last but not least, I shall enter the card into the 'Make Your Mark' challenge at Addicted to Stamps where 'anything goes as long as markers are used on the creation'.  This is a brand new challenge site in blogland, so do pop over and give the ladies your support.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card:

Stamps: Henry (builder wheel), Elegant Thank You, Lovely as a Tree

Ink: Island Indigo, Pool Party, More Mustard, Calypso Coral, Basic Black (all in marker form)

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

At dinner yesterday evening, there was a football discussion and my husband asked the boys if they knew how to put their fingers in their mouths and give one of those piercing whistles to let the ref know you disapprove of his decision! (I know, I try my best to teach them table manners but what chance do I have?!) There then followed a lively practice session during which my youngest son blew his nose. "Oh that'll tell the ref!" said my daughter, adding in her best Victorian gentleman's voice: "I blow my nose at you sir!"

Have a lovely weekend won't you, and I'll see you soon.

Hugs,

Simply Scored diagonal texture

I can never resist the colour swatches at the ColourQ site! Come and have a look at the cards I made for this week's challenge:

The thing that grabbed me about the inspiration picture (scroll down to see it) was the texture of the tie and I was able to recreate that very easily using my Simply Scored diagonal plate! I used my largest square punch to cut out a square and matted it onto smooth card stock in the same colour. Then it was ready to be sprinkled with punched flowers...

...or die cut butterflies! This Beautiful Wings embosslits die has got to be one of the most-used dies in my crafting square metre!

You get lots of embossed butterflies from one pass through the Big Shot with this die, but I chose to use the lined one to link up to the textured background as well as two of the tiniest butterfly.

Here are the flowers too, snipped between the petals and centred with self-adhesive pearls. I love that there are three different sizes of pearls on these sheets as well as strings of pearls to save a lot of time if you want a long row on a project. The sentiment is Elegant Thank You, a single stamp which has flourishes above and below the text; I wanted only the simple upper case sentiment though so I used a marker and my stamp-a-majig to achieve that.

Here's what you'll need to make today's cards:

Stamps: Elegant Thank You

Ink: Night of Navy marker

Card stock: Whisper White, Lucky Limeade, Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Marina Mist

Other: Simply Scored with diagonal plate, Basic pearls, Beautiful Wings embosslits die, Itty Bitty and Boho Blossoms punches, paper snips, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

You're probably familiar with the Harry Potter stories, set at a boarding school for wizards and witches. In the books, pupils are placed in 'houses' and given points for good work or behaviour - just like some real life schools. Harry and his friends are in Gryffindor House and there are lots of references in the stories to points being allocated or taken away! You may be wondering why I've mentioned this, but I just wanted you to have all the information before hearing just how mad my daughter actually is... Yesterday morning I overheard her talking to the cat (no, not in French this time!) "Aaaah, Tuppence, you are so adorable," she said. "Ten points to Kittendor!" It must be the Chemistry revision getting to her.

Crafters' weather is forecast for pretty much all the UK tomorrow so have fun everyone! Unfortunately, it's also my youngest son's school summer fair...

See you very soon,