Two little robots

I found a treasure in the charity shop last year: a plastic bag with five stamps. They were red rubber and mounted, but there was no imprint of them, and the original package had been discarded. I rescued them and brought them home. They are rather whimsical: two child robots (of the old, 1950's kind), a mechanical gnome and some other rather peculiar looking creatures.

As I was browsing through the challenges in search of a bundle that would work well together, they exuded their magic powers yet again and I found several that I was just too happy to combine. I could hear the child robots calling out to me, and they became the star of this card.

For the background I selected a strip of copy paper that I had ink smooshed, cleaned my stencils on and used for color flicking. The colors were nice and I decided to work with similar colors when coloring the robots.

I cut the paper to size, added a strip of another scrap as per the chosen sketch (see below) and mounted everything onto my card base. Then I stamped the robots, and after I had colored them in I fussy cut them. I arranged them (also according to the sketch) and stamped the sentiment "Cheer up!". I heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. Lastly I added three shiny little dots.

 

Entering this in these lovely challenges:

Passion for Markers: #856 For a child

Sunday Stamps: #ssc395 sketch

 

Cardz 4 Galz: #285 Fantasy: fairies, goblins, dragons etc.

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Make your own background (2nd)

Paper Rock Scissors: #20 September - paper and scissors! Rocks, too, if you want to count the shiny bits.

I did not forget your birthday

 Today's card features a piece of gelli print, some ink smooshing and ink flicking, watercolors and a fineliner, a die, a stamp, a remnant - and paper and scissors, of course.

It all started with two prompts: a photo collage of vases with lovely hues of blue (see below), and the prompt to use only one color next to black and white. My decision was instant: I would use that beautiful blue as my one color. I gathered my supplies:

 

I started by stamping a part of the gigantic forget-me-not. I then prepared an ink smooshing bath (Blueprint Sketch DO) and repeatedly took the middle part of the image to it, letting it dry in between. As the color was still not dark enough, I helped it out with GT watercolor (Ultramarin).

I then cut the vase out of a gelli print and used the rest to make a 'table top' for the vase to sit on. I fussy cut the flower and attached everything in place. I then flicked the background with black ink and drew a partial frame with a fineliner.

Entering this in these lovely challenges that inspired me today:

Double D: Vases and/or pitchers

 

Lost Coast Portal to Creativity: #213 Black and white plus another color

 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Stamp It 

Stamps+Fun=Creativity: #500 Jubiläum

Creative Artiste Mixed Media: #130 AG mixed media

Paer Rock Scissors: #20 

Going scrappy

In the beginning of the month I showed you my scrap pile. I since used it for several projects (here and here and some off camera). And today it was time to use it again.

 

There was enough left to select some green, blue and shimmery stripes and weave them together for a background. The color selection was inspired by a color challenge.

 

I was inspired by some other challenges as well. One was for frames, so I was going to use two rectangular dies for that. The other was a challenge to use an old stamp. 

I rummaged through my stamps and found a good oldie, a flower by Stampendous. I have had it for at least six years, but it is certainly older than that. It has one flaw: in one place the petals make a noticeable gap, so I either cover that up or double up this part. That's what I did today. 

 

Then I die cut the background and its frame, stamped the sentiment and the flower and colored it in with my GT watercolors. I attached a white die cut sprig to give the card more dimension.

 

Entering this in the challenges that inspired me today:

Inspire. Create.Challenges: #223 Use up your scraps 

 

AAA Colourful: #31 Colourboard

Retro Rubber Challenge: #rrcb 279 AG with a stamp older than a year 

 

All About Papercraft: #8 Frames

 Paper Rock Scissors: #19 August challenge - paper+ scissors for cutting out the flower.

 

Woodland greetings for your big day

 I had so much fun casing a card two days ago (here) so I wanted to try another one. A couple of challenges are also playing nicely together and I could use the prompts as an inspiration for my card.

The supplies looked like this:

And the project I am casing comes from the most recent SU catalogue (pg. 34-35)

Now, I changed quite a bit and kept much the same. I changed the background to reflect the dark paper seen on the left page. I omitted the flowers as I wanted this to be a woodland scene, but I kept the arrangement, the bottom strip and the bow for the sentiment strip.

I started by embossing an alcohol ink print using black Versafine for the background portions. It never gives me full coverage, so I painted the missing bits over with a dark green marker. I then die cut the foliage in three shades of green and stamped and colored the fern, then fussy cut it.

The sentiment was tied with flax twine. It reads "Many happy returns".

Entering this in these challenges that were my inspiration today:

Time Out Challenges: #318 Mother Nature

 

Inspire. Create. Challenge: #212 CASE a card

 

CYHTP: AG /Celebration (use an embossing folder) Going with 'Celebration' option

Paper Rock Scissors: #19 AG - plenty of paper, scissors for the tail of the sentiment strip

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Happy Birthday 

 

 

Happy to you

 I could not believe it. It has been a couple of years since I bought this beautiful die set - and have not once used it. Today a challenge made me think of it and I packed it out. The colors were inspired by another challenge. I used small paper paint chips, too - always a win as I have too many stashed up.

 

This is a birthday card.

 

I am entering this in these inspirational challenges: 

Time Out: #316 Inspiration photo - I was inspired by the open geometric structure

 

Seize the Birthday: #329 Blue, pink and yellow

Snippets Playground: #535 

I am also entering in these AG challenges:

Cupcake Inspirations: #638

 

Paper Rock Scissors: #17 

Dancing around

 I have neglected my stencils for some time. Luckily I found a couple of challenges that promised to change that. I chose to work with stencils, butterflies and a floral. 

I made the background with two stencils (sitting on the left). I then added a few butterflies to it through the larger stencil. After it had dried I found it too stark and added a vellum overlay. I then stamped a large zinnia (by Stampendous) and colored it in with watercolors. I also die cut some butterflies and colored those in as well., and positioned them to dance around the flower.

 

I am entering this into these challenges that inspired me today:

Stencil Fun: AG stencil / optional butterflies - I went with this option 

TiOT: Flying high 

Papercraft Challenges: #130 Botanical beauty 

Paper Rock Scissors: #17 June challenge AG