Secret Garden Hive...

Hello!

I wanted to play with the Hexagon Hive thinlit die and found a pretty sketch at Cardabilities as well as a colour combo at Hand Stamped Sentiments to inspire me...

I wanted to stamp something on the Hexagon Give die-cut so I looked through my stamps for some possibilities and decided on some of the motifs from Hello Lovely...

I was really pleased with how this one turned out (even though I forgot to put the large banner from the sketch into my design!). I was actually pretty quick to put together because of the flowers and leaves having coordinating dies (love these!)... I added some pearls and a greeting and that was that!

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Secret Garden, Hello Lovely, Petite Pairs
Ink: Coastal Cabana, Gumball Green, Crushed Curry, Daffodil Delight
Paper: Coastal Cabana, Whisper White
Accessories: Pearls
Tools: Secret Garden framelits, Hexagon Hive thinlit die

Thanks for stopping by...

x Amy x

Mojo Daffodil Petals

Hiya!


Well I'm back from my holiday - it was amazing! Was totally spoilt by my Mum and by the exceptional service on the Holland America cruise ship, and had a blast shopping in New York (clothes in the US seem to suit me so much better than those in the UK - size, style and price lol!). Was interesting trying to get everything back afterwards - thank God for sympathetic baggage check-in staff!! Hee...


Anyways, I've had two weeks without playing with my stamps and paper so I had to find some time to play this weekend. I was looking at some of the current challenges and decided to combine the Mojo Monday sketch with this week's Colour Throwdown combo...

I wanted to play with a new stamp set in my collection from the Spring/Summer catalogue: Peaceful Petals. With that in mind, I started playing and ended up with this...

I used Old Olive instead of Lucky Limeade and added black and white as my neutrals. The dsp in the background is from the Fresh Prints pack and I layered some Naturals White over the top, layered on Basic Black and punched the corners using the rounding punch on the Envelope Punch board. The flower was stamped on watercolour paper with stazon then coloured with ink and an aquapainter and cut out with my paper snips. I stamped and coloured some leaves on Whisper White card, cut out and layered behind the flower and over a film strip die-cut. The sentiments are from Peaceful Petals and Hello Lovely, both stamped in Old Olive.

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Peaceful Petals, Hello Lovely
Ink: Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Stazon
Paper: Fresh prints dsp, Naturals White, Basic Black, Whisper White, watercolour
Tools: Envelope Punch Board, On Film Framelits, Itty Bitty Banner framelits

That's all for now... I'm going to have an early night and try and beat the jet lag before starting work tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by...

x Amy x

Simple Pink Blooms

Hiya!

It's time for another ColourQ challenge and this week we're going pink & red...

When I first saw these colours I was wondering how to fit that many red/pinks on one card, then I took out the new Simple Stems set and had a play combining different colours and adding shading with a blender pen. When I finished cutting and layering them then I set about looking for a sketch to play with and came across the Retro Sketches layout this week so I decided to play along, and here's what I came up with...

This is what I love about playing along with challenges - I would never have come up with this card on my own, but by combining a sketch and colour combo I can create something a bit different from my usual style. I've used a few new Spring/Summer catty goodies on this one: Simple Stems, Gold baker's twine, gold sequins and some Fresh Prints dsp.

The largest flower was stamped three times with Blushing Bride ink and I added a little shading with Melon Mambo ink (although you can't really see it in the pic!). The largest layer was die-cut with one of the secret Garden framelits while the next two layers were cut with my paper snips and layered up with dimensionals. The other flowers were both stamped twice and layered: one with Melon Mambo and one with Real Red, and both were shaded with Raspberry Ripple ink.

Here's the sketch I followed...

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Simple Stems, Hello Lovely
Ink: Blushing Bride, Raspberry Ripple, Real Red, Melon Mambo
Paper: Fresh Prints dsp, Blushing Bride, Raspberry Ripple, Whisper White, Naturals White
Accessories: Gold baker's twine, gold sequins
Tools: Secret Garden framelits

That's all from me - make sure you visit the rest of the Royal Court and be inspired by their fab creations this week!

Thanks for stopping by...

x Amy x

Lovely Summer Garden

Hi there!


This week at the ColourQ we have a pretty colour combo to play with...

I was inspired to play with some new goodies - one of the Sale-a-Bration stamp sets coming at the end of January that you can get for FREE, as well as the Hello Lovely set I received at Convention. I combined them with a favourite of mine - Secret Garden - and came up with this...

I'm loving how this one turned out! I started by stamping a background on the piece of Basic Grey using a couple of the motifs from Hello Lovely. I created a grid using my Simply Scored tool, then lined up the images with the grid and stamped repeatedly - one in Whisper White ink and the other in grey (you can't see much of that one in the card!). I then layered a piece of Summer Starfruit core'dinations card that I had embossed with the Woodgrain embossing folder and sanded, over the top, followed by a Cherry Cobbler textured card panel (both of these were layered on Whisper White to make them pop a little more). The sentiment is from the Sale-a-Bration set You're Lovely, embossed with black EP on Whisper White then die-cut with the smallest deco labels framelit and coloured in a little with markers. 

The flowers were stamped on Watercolour card and embossed with white EP, then die-cut using the matching framelits (the outside flowers) and coloured using an aqua brush and ink pads. I used a combination of Tangerine Tango and Real Red to achieve the poppy colour, and used Cherry Cobbler instead of Bravo Burgundy. I stamped each flower a few times then fussy-cut the smaller layers to pop over the top to get a 3D look. The leaves are also from Secret Garden, stamped with Summer Starfruit onto Whisper White then die-cut. 

I used this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch for the layout (I just rotated it... and added flowers!!):

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: You're Lovely, Hello Lovely, Secret Garden
Ink: Versamark, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Real Red, Tangeine Tango, Summer Starfruit, Smoky Slate, SU markers
Paper: Basic Grey, Cherry Cobbler Textured, Summer Starfruit core'dinations, Whisper White, watercolour
Accessories: White & black EP
Tools:  Deco labels framelits, Secret Garden framelits, Simply Scored,

Make sure you check out the creations by the rest of the Royal Court this week - you're sure to be inspired!


Thanks for stopping by...







x Amy x

I'm back!

Hiya!

Well I'm back in the UK after a lovely long holiday in Australia - and I'm able to get crafting again! I wasn't able to play along with the Colour Q challenges while I was away (I'll be back playing along with the Royal Court on Tuesday!) but in order to get my stamping mojo started again I thought I'd play along with this week's challenge, as well as the sketch from PPA this week...

I wanted to play with a couple of sets I got at Convention (Gorgeous Grunge and Hello Lovely) that I didn't get much time to use before I went away... I put the colours together and came up with this...

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Perfect Blend, Gorgeous Grunge, Hello Lovely
Ink: Baked Brown Sugar, Midnight Muse
Paper: Retro Fresh dsp, Sweater Weather dsp, Baked Brown Sugar, Midnight Muse, Whisper White, Coastal Cabana
Accessories: Neutrals candy dots

Thanks for stopping by...

x Amy x

Orange Maple Leaves

Hi there!

Just popping in quickly to share my Friday Mashup card with you... It's been a long & busy week and I'm pretty tired so I'm gonna keep it short and sweet! Liliana is bringing us an easy challenge with lots of possibilities...

I used some more of the Magnificent Maple leaves I had stamped at a training event recently as well as some partially put-together card bits and pieces also from the training (thanks Jane for the fab ideas!!).

I thought this would work quite well as a masculine thank you card (never have enough of those!)

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Magnificent Maple, Hello Lovely
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Tangerine Tango
Paper: Sweater Weather dsp, Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, Tangerine Tango, Crushed Curry, Very Vanila
Accessories: Naturals designer buttons
Tools: Apothecary Accents framelits, Oval Accent bigz die, Labels thinlets collection

Make sure you check out the design team's leafy creations this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

x Amy x

Marina Maple Mojo

Hiya!

I took some time out last night to make a card for a couple of challenges: Mojo Monday's sketch and the colours from Stampin' Royalty...

I had stamped out a bunch of the Maple leaf single stamp from the Autumn/Winter catty at a team training event a few weeks ago and some were in Tangerine Tango so I started with them and ended up with this...

The maple leaf was stamped once on Tangerine Tango and again with Tangerine Tango onto Very Vanilla card, then cut out. The Marina Mist panel is core'dinations card embossed with the Alphabet Press EF and sanded lightly. The Basic Grey panel was stamped with one of the Gorgeous Grunge stamps (becoming a bit addictive!). The sentiment is from Hello Lovely, stamped with Tangerine Tango ink on Very Vanilla card and trimmed out with my paper snips. I added some Basic Black chevron ribbon and a little metal hardware clip as well as some Basic Grey candy dots to finish.

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Magnificent Maple, Hello Lovely, Gorgeous Grunge
Ink: Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip, Basic Black
Paper: Marina Mist core'dinations, Basic Black, Basic Grey, Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla, Tangerine Tango
Accessories: Basic Black chevron ribbon, Neutrals candy dots, essentials hardware clips
Tools: Alphabet press EF, Circles framelits, distressing tool

Thanks for stopping by!

x Amy x