Colorful Options “Red”

I’m back after a long break due to ill health after I was admitted to hospital for five days with intestinal issues and managed to catch covid just to put icing on the cake. The road to recovery has been slow and I’ll require surgery and more tests shortly but I’m feeling so much better and getting stronger by the day. Unfortunately, this all coincided with the opening of our new shop which had to be delayed by two weeks thankfully we are up and running now.

Enough of my moaning and on to the task at hand. Colorful Options has a fabulous new challenge with one of my favourite colours….red.

I made a frame using some old Spellbinders dies and embossed a piece of card with this fantastic EF from WeRmemory keepers. I brushed carefully over the top with Distress Oxide in Coral Red so as to keep some of the white card visible. I then attached acetate as I was planning to make a shaker but as it happens I didn’t like the result so left it as was. The faceted heart is courtesy of Mr Holtz and Sizzix also colored by Distress Oxide and a tad of clear Distress embossing glaze for a little shine.

We do hope you will join us at Colorful Options the DT has some amazing cards to delight and inspire and you can also find out more about this challenge and the wonderful gifts for our lucky winners.

Here’s a little glimpse of the new shop, not a very good photo but the best one I could get from a distance to show both windows.

I look forward to catching up with you all.

Take care

Marie

Less is More #483 Spring

Welcome back to another challenge at Less is More and for the next fortnight, we are asking you to share your spring inspirations with us.

Has spring sprung in your part of the world? Here in Greece the weather has been awful, rain, rain and more rain I mean April showers are one thing but it’s the middle of May and it’s just miserable!

The first thing that came to mind when I thought about spring, apart from the fact that we aren’t having one this year is the following card. Not one of my best but I just couldn’t shake it so please be kind.

I know I know it’s awful and puny but that’s my current mood. I used my trusty Cameo to cut the spring which is popped up on foam and hot foiled and die cut the Pinkfresh Studio sentiment.

Feeling guilty about my rubbish card I’ve made another a little more season appropriate.

This cute little duckie is from Vicky Papaioannou for Spellbinders which I simply die cut and added a touch of Distress Oxide in Broken China and a couple of sploshes of water for rain, oh, and of course a googly eye for good measure.

I’m sharing my little duckie with the lovely Darnell over at NBUS as it’s her first time out of the packet the duck, not Darnell haha

We do hope you will play along with us at LIM my teammates have made “real” cards so please don’t be put off by mine.

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend.

Marie

Flowers Galore!

Hello lovely crafters I’m popping in today to share three cards for a few challenges some of which are new to me. It’s the time of year when the challenge themes are mainly flowers or spring and due to the lack of lovely weather here in Greece, I’ve made tons of them in order to cheer myself up. Having said that the three that I’m sharing are all monochromatic so that may give some insight into my current mood. The reason is I’ve just returned from a quick visit to the Uk to visit my lovely sister Kal and her family and although I had a fabulous time I really do miss her and her loopiness. The upside is she gifted me tons of lovely crafting supplies as she has turned her attention from crafting to Lego so that’s a result for me! She did try however to entice me into building a few things which I was rubbish at. To be honest, I was afraid I would become addicted and I just can’t afford another hobby plus my bloggers blindness would increase tenfold as those little bricks are minuscule, and even with the aid of my glasses I was visually challenged after half an hour, and needed a lie down !

I made all three using the Be Bold Blooms die set from Spellbinders and a couple of Altenew embossing plates for the backgrounds. I love the simplicity of them especially the first one although it was a nightmare trying to get the placement right and took longer than the cutting itself. I’ve added foam tape randomly behind some of the blooms and leaves to add a little depth.

Triple D are asking us for blooms birds or butterflies.

Get Creative Challenges #121 Flower Frenzy ( I was certainly in a frenzy cutting all of these flowers )

Happy Little Stampers

Please do pop over the above-mentioned blogs as the Dt’s all have the most amazing cards to inspire and delight.

Until next time I hope you are all well and happy.

Take care, Marie.

Outdoors.

Hello to one and all, I’m popping in with a quick post to share a clean and simple card for Less is More for their Outdoors challenge #478

A super easy card made using a fabulous die set from the Spellbinders series “Bird Houses Throughout the Seasons” I’ve chosen for my card Build a Winter Birdhouse by Vicky Papaioannou. I love this series so easy to use and added a couple of birdies from another Spellbinders set.

No stamping on this card just die cutting a sentiment sticker from Tim Holtz and some lovely gold blobs from Pinkfresh studio.

I’m also linking this card to Fab N Funky#562 as they are asking for cards with die cuts only no stamping allowed so this fits the build perfectly.

Also linking to NBUS #45 as this little birdhouse has never been used before.

Do pop over and check out the Design Teams of the above mentioned blogs they have some amazing cards to inspire us all and their galleries are jammed packed with gorgeousness.

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend.

Marie

Addicted to CAS Challenge #233 – Present

Welcome back, It’s our last challenge of 2022 at ATCAS so I do hope you will join in and play along with our current theme which has been chosen for us by the super-talented Raga.

Such a great theme and I’m sure you all have something present-related in your stash.

For my “borderline” CAS card I used this fantastic die by Spellbinders called shopping spree it’s in the series of kinetic dies her legs swing to and fro it’s so cute and you can dress her as you wish. It’s quite fiddly has lots of small pieces and if you have a messy desk like mine then you might need to die cut a few pieces again as they tend to go missing. I used distress oxide for her coat, mat gold, and silver card for the pressies, and a little glitter for her boots and mitts. The mini slimline frame is from Pinkfresh Studio. I had a great sentiment for this card “finders keepers” which I added after taking the photo as it was as I mentioned before borderline CAS so kept it as is.

I do hope you will be able to join us at ATCAS to CAS for our last challenge of the year my teamies have some fantastic cards to inspire you all and I can’t wait to see what you all come up with.

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend and look forward to seeing you in the new year at ATCAS refreshed and revitalised.

Linking up to NBUS challenge # 44 as my little dancing lady is having her first shopping spree

Happy Little Stampers has an Anything Goes with Dies challenge and there are plenty of dies on this card

Until then….

Take care

Marie

Addicted to CAS #232 Sympathy

Time once again for a new challenge at Addicted to CAS and for the next two weeks our hostess is the fabulously talented Vicki. So what has she chosen for her code word?

Well, it’s definitely a card no one wants to make and I have to say I really struggled trying to create something fitting for this sad occasion.

I used an old Memory Box rubber wooden stamp that I’ve had in my stash for about ten years. I first created a background with a couple of oxide inks in Twisted Citron and Salvaged Patina I splashed it with a little water and when it was dry I stamped the image using black archival ink. The sentiment is by Yana Smakula and foiled in silver although you wouldn’t know if from my terrible photo. A little silver blob from PinkFresh and a couple of leaves from one of my Spellbinders sets and there you have it.

We do hope you will play along with us at ATCAS and I look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery.

I’m off for a few days to our summer house with Mr.P the weather is glorious and now my cast is off I’m looking forward to having a swim.

Take care

Marie

Just Us Girls #653 CAS

Hello lovelies, just popping in with a quick card for one of my favourite challenge blogs Just Us Girls As soon as I saw this week’s theme I just couldn’t resist, the fabulous Sue has chosen CAS and I do like myself a bit of CAS.

I used this lovely ovalish die for my aperture I still haven’t found out who it belongs to, I really must be more careful with the packaging! The little birdie is from Spellbinders I think it’s called little chickadee. For the background, I used the bubble technique that I saw Chris Stokes using so much fun. I added Stamping Up Melon Mambo ink to a cup of water a few drops of washing up liquid and using a metal straw made lots of bubbles then swooshed (technical term) my paper gently across the bubbles let it dry and Ta-dah a bubbly background is born. I made it into a shaker just to add a touch of colour and a sticker sentiment from Mr Holtz.

Here’s a close-up for those of you who like myself suffer from bloggers’ blindness.

I’m also entering into Happy Little Stampers watercolour challenge as there was plenty of water and colour used in this card.

Do pop over to HLS and JUGS as both DT’s have some amazing cards to inspire us all.

Take care

Marie

Die Cuts Galore!

Just popping in with a super quick post as I’m off to my summer house as I have girlfriends arriving from the UK and Australia for our annual weekend by the sea”The Balcony Girls” as we like to call ourselves haven’t been able to all get together for three years because of covid. Having a broken arm doesn’t help matters as I love to cook and take care of everyone, this time round I will with all difficulty have to let others take care of me, and being the bossy so and so I am it might be another three years before I see them again.

On to my card……

The gorgeous giraffe die is from Mr. Holtz’s colorize series I’m absolutely loving them even though there are some tiny weeny and I mean weeny pieces that tend to go missing and then turn up once I have cut them out again. My pink giraffe was coloured with distress oxides in kitsch flamingo and picked raspberry. The florals are from Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms set I love this set but once again there are some tiny pieces well actually they are all quite small and I had to cut about 100 flowers before I got the colour combo I liked. Luckily enough this card was made before I broke my arm as I would never have managed it. It’s been sitting on my desk waiting for the right challenge to come along. The wonky sentiment is also Spellbinders from sentiments by Yana Smakula hot foiled in gold.

Addicted to Stamps and More #435 are asking us to use die cuts or stencils

Inspiration Station #35 are asking us to use the photo below “Animal Kingdom” I was inspired by this photo seeing all of the animals living in harmony together.

This is a photo collage

Happy Little Stampers Anything goes with Dies

Well, that’s all from me as I have to go and give the very patient Mr. P packing instructions for my trip , this broken arm business does have some benefits wink wink.

Take care

Marie

Alcohol Ink and Foil

Hello lovely crafters hope you are all in fine fettle, I myself am in super-duper fettle as I had my first swim of the year in beautiful Halkidiki Greece where I have a summer home. The water was a tad cold, well freezing actually but it was fabulous, I’m back home today as the temperature has dropped to 16 so defo no swimming for me.

I’ve been waiting for weeks now to take part in a challenge over at Just Us Girls I’ve been so impressed by the DT and the quality of cards in their galleries. I’ve been biding my time waiting for the opportunity to join in and seeing their latest challenge Alcohol Ink and Foil I just had to take part.

So I decided to make it difficult for myself by using alcohol ink on acetate and then hot foiling on top. I was worried that the acetate might melt, no problem there, but as you all know trying to photograph acetate is a nightmare as you can see below.

I used a lovely memory box die to cut the heart, Ranger Mojito, and citrus inks with a splash of ink blending solution,(sounds a bit like a cocktail)minus the ink blending solution of course. I used the Tim Holtz puffy contraption to blow the inks hither and thither.Ten goes later and a full bin of acetate left me with this green affair.I used spellbinders dotted circles hot foil plates on top of the acetate double-sided foam was added for dimension and Pinkfresh studio gold blobs were placed underneath the acetate,looks like they are on top but they are under and look lovely in real life. Once again I have used Yana Smakulas hot foil sentiment and banner, I really must find an alternative I’m getting very repetitive.

Do pop over to Just us Girls as the DT have outdone themselves and the lovey and talented Mac from The Sweetest of Peas is the guest designer.

Wishing you all a fabulous week

Take care

Marie

Happy Little stampers.

Anything Goes With Dies

Well it’s been an absolute age since I entered a challenge but after seeing what’s going on over at Happy Little Stampers I decided to take the plunge.

I chose to use one of my most favourite die sets by birch press designs called Regal Peacock.

There are four layers plus the body which means the possibilities are endless and I’ve made many a card using different colours and textures.

For this particular one I used mirror card and glitter foam.

For the background I used a variety of distress oxides and made a frame using spellbinder dies.

There are some amazing cards in the gallery at Happy Little stampers and the Design team have outdone themselves.

I do hope you are all keeping well during these difficult times and look forward to popping by and seeing your creations.

Take care

Marie