Hello lovely ladies

Its been such a long time since I last posted or entered a challenge it’s taken me ages to write this post.

Since the end of last year I’ve started an evening course to learn how to design patterns and create my own clothes I’ve really enjoyed it but as with all things crafty it’s become an obsession and card making has fallen by the wayside. Actually that’s not true I’ve been making cards just not blogging them as all of my energy and money has been ploughed into my new hobby. Today though I decided to take the plunge and enter a couple of my favourite challenges albeit with a very simple card. so here goes

Less is More – A Real Object

The lovely limettes are asking us to add something real to our cards so this is what I came up with

I used my trusty Silhouette Cameo to cut the image popped it up with some foam for dimension and added the paper clips for my ” real thing ” very simple.

I’m also entering into City Crafter challenge whose theme this week is

Back to School

Well that’s all from me and I do hope it wont be another six months before I post again.

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend.

Marie

Less is More is finishing off a month of birthday celebrations with a fantastic new challenge which just so happens to be one of my least favourites , the sketch challenge. I’m totally rubbish at them and usually avoid them but this time I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Executing my idea was another matter and it’s taken all day to make this simple card.

Last year I bought a badge making machine on a whim , as you do, and have hardly used it, no surprise there. Today though it’s having a little outing.

These images are Silhouette studio files which I’ve printed and watercoloured. The raccoon was printed again onto copy paper to make the badge and adhered to the card.

Here he is without the badge showing the printed image. I choose the particular sentiment as the critters all look so miserable I wonder what that’s all about !

Do pop over to LIM once again the DT have all produced amazing cards to inspire us all.

Before I go I want to shout out to the lovely Brenda Lawrence who is constantly leaving me comments unfortunately WordPress isn’t showing me your blog name so I can’t come by and visit. Could you please leave it in your comment so I can come and visit.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

Marie

I’ve been trying to join in the birthday celebrations at Less is More for the past few weeks and finally managed it with 24 hours to go ! All month long the LIMettes are celebrating their fourth birthday .

The challenge for this week is…….

As always I’m late getting on the band wagon with trends and have been steering clear of watercolouring , well actually that’s not true I’ve just been steering clear of posting my efforts.  Today I’m feeling brave and wanted to share this card I made for the LIM Alphabet challenge. A little watercolouring and smooshing with Ranger Distress Inks and then a tad of stamping , can’t remember whose stamp it is I think its Penny Black but not sure. Fintec arabic gold watercolour for the gold highlights and then a glass dome over the centre. Looks much better in real life and for once can’t blame the lack of sun for the poor photo ,just the opposite today !

Happy Little Stampers have an anything goes challenge on with the twist of using a die but for once my Cameo has been left untouched , it’s about time the poor little blighter had a rest.

Crafty Life Challenges  are also asking us to use stamps on our projects so am linking up there also.

Do pop over to both LIM and Happy Little Stampers lots of amazing cards in their galleries and by both DT’s.

Take care

Marie

I have the pleasure to be over at The City Crafter challenge blog as guest designer this week after winning their sale now on challenge a few weeks ago.

The theme for this  week is to create a project using your stitch dies or faux stitching.

Well as I don’t own one single stitch die I had to use the offset feature on my Cameo and turn the line into stitches around the leaves , those of you that own Cameo’s will know how I did it. For good measure I attached the leaf with real stitching.

For the leaf I used and old Indigoblu bubble stamp which I white embossed onto watercolour paper. I used the smooshing technique, well I believe that’s the technical term and a first for me. Using a variety of Ranger distress inks I ” smooshed ” away on top of the image. I really enjoyed it and don’t know why I have avoided watercolouring and smooshing it was such great fun. Once the ink was dry I took out my beautiful Finetec gold watercolour paints that have been sitting in my drawer for ages as I was scared to use them.

I first saw the amazing Kristina Werner use them and was hooked I just had to have them not knowing what I would do with them until this challenge. So out they came and using an aqua brush I painted over the top of the leaf and this is the result. I just love the effect unfortunately its very hard to capture with my limited photographic skills the intensity of colour. The cut out leaf was added into the negative space of the first leaf and popped up with a little foam and then backed onto some delicious wallpaper.

Also linking up to Happy Little Stampers who I see are asking  us to use Watercolours with the optional twist of dies.

Do pop on over to City Crafter and see what the amazing DT have come up with to inspire us this week,  once again their designs are beautiful and I’m so proud to have been chosen to join them this week.

Take care

Marie

Just popping in very quickly to share a card  I made for this weeks CASolgy challenge

and Happy Little Stampers whose theme is anything goes with dies

Once again the weather here in Greece is very gloomy so it’s quite hard to see the glistening effect on this card but I can assure you it is there.

A couple of close ups

The sentiment is by Neat and Tangled and the heart shape is cut using my Cameo after stamping the heart and then scanning the image into the Cameo software. Instead of using the stamped image I used the programme to cut around the edge of heart using the offset tool . To get my gold glistening effect on the heart I used Ranger crackle paint let it dry then spritzed it with a mixture of water and perfect pearls in gold. After drying I added some gold leaf watercolour paint in a few areas and embossed with this wonderful embossing 3d folder by WRMK.

I really enjoyed making this card getting gold dust everywhere and unfortunately in the bottom right handed corner hence the black flower which I could have done without.

Do pop over to CASolgy and Happy Little Stampers the DT’s have some amazing cards to inspire us and the galleries are full of beautiful creative pieces.

Wishing you all a lovely Sunday

Marie

Hello to one and all

As I’m housebound at the moment I decided to have a little trawl around blogland to see what everyone was up to and found that three of my favourite challenge blogs had some very interesting themes.

CAS-UAL Fridays

C

City Crafter

CASology

I

Also adding my link to The Card Concept a new to me challenge blog and I’m using the classy and elegant style for my card.

Now try as I might I just couldnt get a decent photo its taken hours to get three bad ones !

The Lady shopper was first printed onto black card with my laser printer along with the sentiment and then passed through the Minc machine with some lovely gold foil. It came out a little blotchy but I quite like the effect. I cut out two more ladies with my Cameo, one I embossed with copper embossing powder and the second I left naked. I placed them on top of each other with foam tape underneath to add a little dimension and offset them to give the impression of her walking ( well that’s what I had going on in my little mind ) Unfortunately the depth of colour and dimension is not apparent from these photo’s and to be honest its a much better card in real life but having spent nearly all day making this I wasn’t prepared to bin it !

Hopefully my card ties in to all three challenges so why not pop on over to CAS-UAL Fridays, CASology and City Crafter for some spectacular cards from the DT’s .

Right that’s me off for a lie down I’m knackered, this card making lark or should I say photographing is hard work.

Take care

Marie

Hello to one and all.

I’m back with a second post this week due to the fact that ” sunny Greece” , well at least my city Thessaloniki is snowed in and we have been asked not to open our businesses by our mayor . So there’s not much else to do but craft and keep warm.Unfortunately for thousands of people who have gas central heating their pipes have frozen and most don’t have hot water or heating no one apparently foresaw -10c in the cities .

AAA Cards has a new challenge up and running and due to the inclement weather here I thought that my card may just fit the bill

These two little guys have been cut with my Cameo the larger one being inset into the card and the smaller being popped up by foam to give dimension. Unfortunately the light is quite poor so not able to get a really good photo.

Here’s another I made

Once again I used my Cameo to cut the image and used the stained glass effect t0 print the coloured background onto acetate this requires a little jiggery pokery with the Cameo software but it’s fun if not a little time consuming to do.

Do pop over to AAA Cards to see the amazing inspiration cards by the DT and there are some lovely cards filling up the gallery.

Just thought I would leave you with some photos from my balcony although it doesnt look too bad especially to those of you that live in countries that have this kind of weather on a regular basis but here in Greece especially in a city as large as Thessaloniki  we are just not prepared for it and of the course -10 to -15 isn’t helping a whole lot.

Wherever you are stay safe.

Marie

Hello lovely ladies and gents and a happy new year to you all.

Once again popping back out of retirement to take part in another fun and fab challenge over at Less is More.

This weeks challenge is colour using the ombre technique and for those not familiar with said technique just pop over to LIM and all will become clear.

I see my old mucker Smiley Kylie from Happy Little Stampers is the sponsor for this weeks challenge so one more reason for me to play along.

Two versions of the same card the first one is the nice clean and tidy version and the second one is the messy one but photographed better ( in my humble opinion )

The pig was cut with my cameo and the negative space was coloured with Pan Pastels then embossed with this fab Memory Keepers embossing folder and a little gem added for the eye.

Why not pop over to LIM to see the amazing cards by the design team and as always the gallery is filling up nicely with lots of gorgeous creations.

I’m off to put on some extra socks -9 here in sunny Greece all my lovely plants have died overnight after many years of love and attention from me sniff sniff.

Take care

Marie