Oh I Do Like to Be Beside The Seaside......

Happy Sunday morning Bloggers, we've got sunshine here so far today, however the forecast is for showers to develop later in the day, ah well it's nice to see some blue sky for the moment anyway.

This morning I'm off out to take my Dad home, he's been staying with me for the past month and I'm really going to miss him. 

I wasn't sure I'd get a card made before we need to leave but inspiration struck as I was waking up and I was able to put my hands on the exact stamp set I wanted to use for my entry for this week's Simply Less is More challenge, which is the title I've used for today's post.  This week we need to create a one layer card.

Here's my entry...

The stamp set I was inspired to use is by Crafty Individuals, all of the images in the set are fabulous and I particularly like the little row of beach huts.  For this card I used the sentiment, both sizes of seagull and the tiny shell stamps.

I created the background using a Hero Arts set of stamps, selecting this lush splat image and two colours of Stampin'Up! ink - Coastal Cabana and Crushed Curry.

My design concept was to use the yellow to represent the beach and the blue as the sky - did it work do you think ?  Did you see what I was trying to do when you first saw my card ?  I'd love to hear your reactions.

Nothing else to say about today's project, I've five minutes to pack the car and then we'll be heading up the road.

Thanks for dropping by here today, have a great day yourself whatever you have planned.

A Festive Batch

Hiya Folks, just a quick post from me today, well it's the start of the weekend and I have a very busy time in the next couple of days.  My Dad is going home tomorrow... sniff..sniff !  I shall miss having him around, he's also my crafting buddy and we've had lots of fun with my stash whilst he's been here for the past month.  I'll be seeing him again in November, so not too long till we get together again, he says everyone at his 'Bingo Club' have been missing him, Bless !  I'll post up some of his creations on here so you can see what he's been up to, we tried a few different techniques and stretched him out of his 'comfort zone' on occasions !  Well, he's only 87 years young, so lots of new learning is good for him LOL

 It recently dawned on me that Christmas isn't too far away now - I know, scary isn't it !

Anyway, with panic setting in I realised that I have fallen woefully behind with my plans to get at least a couple of Christmas cards made each week all through the year - to avoid the crazy frantic rush in October/November.  I decided batch making is the way forward, using designs that don't take hours to complete each one and are easy to duplicate.

I do have a large stash of Christmas stamps, embossing folders and dies - in fact I realised (with a little embarrassment) that if I made just one card using each of my Christmas stamps I would have sufficient to send a card to everyone on my list, how naughty am I ?   I'll work my way through my stash as best I can and am sticking to my resolve to not buy any new stamps this year - it's not easy though as there are some lovely new images around ... Ah well, got to stay strong Ha Ha !

 

 

A little earlier this year my crafting pal Lynn, managed to buy two sets of the gorgeous Stampin'Up! snowflake embossing folder and snowflake dies - been there, done that myself !  Purely to help her out (of course) I bought the duplicates from her.  I used the embossing folder on today's project to create the lovely subtle snowflake effect on the base card.

 

The tiny village image was stamped using a Sweet Poppy stamp, coloured with my ProMarkers and then diecut using the matching die.  I think this image is so pretty and it was easy to colour.  The sweet little sentiment is from a set of See D's stamps - remember these from years ago ?  Each set of stamps was sold in a CD case, they were made from purple rubber and are (I think) one of the first self-cling products (please correct me if I'm wrong on this).  This Christmas set was in my stash and had never seen ink.  I thought the tiny sentiment was the perfect size for my design and made me feel good to ink an unused stamp.

 

Here's a pic of the full batch of six I made this time, although I am so pleased with the finished design I shall definitely go on and make another batch of them to add to my stock of cards for this Christmas.

 

 

Hope you've enjoyed your visit today and like today's project, I'm sure I'll be sharing lots more Christmas designs over the coming weeks.  Thanks for dropping by today and have a great day whatever you have planned.

Anything Goes

Welcome to Thursday here at Stamping Grandma.  Today I'm sharing my DT card for this week's new challenge starting over on the Cute Card Thursday Blog.

This week our challenge theme is 'Anything Goes' and our prize sponsor is Sunflower Field.

For my DT card I decided to use the 'stamp etching' technique featured in the last Split Coast Stampers newsletter as I enjoyed using it on the card I shared on here on Tuesday.

This time I've gone for a monochrome design, I do love black and white it's very chic and sophisticated I think.

I created the background using a Spellbinders trellis die and white cardstock, then layered this over black cardstock.  I stamped the daisy flower from a set of stamps by Stampin'Up! three times, then added the 'etching' on each one using a black Pitt Pen before fussy cutting out.

The white leaves were cut using a Martha Stewart punch, the sentiment and label stamps and matching dies are from SU! and I attached the sentiment over the label using PinFlair Glue to give it a little dimension.

That's it, simple and clean and this sentiment means I could use the card for a number of occasions.

I hope you like today's card and have enjoyed your visit, do check out the creations from the rest of the DT over on the CCT Blog.

Thanks for dropping by today, do come back real soon

A Sketch for Inspiration

Happy Tuesday Bloggers, at least it's a tad warmer here in my bit of Cornwall than it was yesterday, I was flippin frozen and spent the evening snuggled under my blankie watching a couple of DVDs.  It's a little drier here today too, and I do believe the sun is struggling to break through.  Anyway, enough about the weather.

Regular visitors here will have noticed that I haven't done a lot of crafting or Blogging during this year, partly due to the fact I've been away from home rather a lot and I've also lost my inspiration with Mr Mojo hiding away somewhere for much of the time.

This week's challenge over on the Less is More Blog has a sketch to work with and this inspired me to come up with my latest project

I like the simple sketch for this week and I was also inspired by an article in the latest Split Coast Stampers newsletter, demonstrating the effects which can be created using what they call 'stamp etching'.

I used Stampin'Up! Baja Breeze cardstock, gingham design roller stamp and sentiment, a magazine freebie flower stamp plus black Pitt Pen to create the etching effect and doodled frame around the edge of the rectangle. 

Finally, I added Glossy Accents in the centre of the flower to give a little dimension.

This is my first entry for the LIM challenge in absolutely ages, in fact it's the first challenge of any sort that I've entered in months !

Thanks for dropping by to check out today's project, hope you enjoyed your visit.

Today I thought I'd share this little Thank You card with you.  I made it to send to a lovely crafting pal to thank her for her warm hospitality and the opportunity to spend time crafting with pals.

I used a scalloped edge C6 base card, Distress inks, a Memory Box stencil and a set of 'splodges' stamps by Visible Image.

Using the stencil I applied various colours of DI onto the card. I diecut a layer and added DI around the edges and stamped the sentiment (using a very old wood mounted stamp which doesn't have the manufacturer's name anywhere). 

I then laid the shaped layer in place over the background and stamped the splodges, going over the edge to give the illusion of an actual ink splat dripping over the edge of the shaped layer onto the background.

Finally I attached the shaped layer using PinFlair Glue to raise it up a little from the background.

I'm quite pleased with the finished card and can't wait to play with the other stencils I've recently acquired.

Thanks for dropping by to check out my project today, hope you enjoyed your visit.

Have a great day, whatever you have planned.

Back to School

Happy Thursday Folks, hope it's a great one for you.

Today we have a new challenge starting over on the Cute Card Thursday Blog and this week our prize sponsor is Whimsy Stamps.

Our theme this week is 'Back to School' - very appropriate for this time of year when most Moms are busy making sure their 'little darlings' are all kitted out and ready for a new school year. I recall those days from when my kids were young !

So, here's my DT creation for this week's challenge.

 

 

I had a design in mind before I started on my card, thought I'd use a Graphic 45 stamp set, however despite undertaking a search,  just couldn't locate that particular set.  Plan B found me rummaging through a box of ready stamped images which I keep for when I need to get something made quickly and no time to search for a particular stamp.

 

I thought this pair of cuties from hAnglar & stAnglar would work on my design.  I coloured the images with my Copics before fussing cutting each one out.   

 

I used a C6 kraft base card and added a layer of kraft with black dots - which I found in my box of bits - first tying a length of natural twine around the dotty layer on the lefthand side before attaching it to the card.

 

I added the two coloured figures using PinFlair Glue to give them a little dimension.  A little touch of Glossy Accents on the girls hair bows and on both their shoes adds more texture.

 

The 'blackboard' style sentiment is from a set of stamps by Stampin'Up!, stamped using Archival Black ink and then cut out.  The 'new school' sentiment I created on my computer and cut out using a scalloped circle punch.

 

It's a simple layout/design but when working on a smaller base card it can look overcrowded if you try to add to many elements, plus these H&S images are quite large.

 

I hope you've enjoyed your visit today and seeing my latest make, do pop over to the CCT Blog to check out the amazing work from the rest of the DT.

 

Thanks for dropping by, hope to welcome you back again real soon.

 

Lacy Birthday Wishes

Good morning Bloggers, I've woken to beautiful blue skies this morning, but it's a tad chilly !  Hopefully the showery weather of the past few days has now passed and we are in for a lovely late summer day here in my part of Cornwall. 

With such a busy few months my crafting time has been in short supply, however I managed to create this card using a new stamp I bought at the ArtStamps show Newbury Racecourse in July. 

I created a base card by cutting a strip from the right hand edge of a 6x6 white card and adding strips of background papers - all magazine freebies.  I then attached lengths of pretty lace, leaves and fronds diecut using various Marianne's dies and scraps of SU! cardstock. 

The cute handbags stamp is from Lili of the Valley - stamped and coloured using watercolour pencils then cut out using a deckle edge oval nestability die.  Before removing from the die I shaded around the edges using Distress Ink.  The image layer was then added over a slightly larger layer cut from a scrap of Stampin'Up! yellow cardstock and attached to the card front - overlapping the edge.

Finally I added a lace bow and a flower which I created using a silicone mould and air dry clay then coloured with ProMarkers.  I stamped the SU! sentiment, cut out and attached just under the lace bow.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my little part of Blogland today, hope you've enjoyed your visit and like today's project.  Have a great day.

Keeping it Clean and Simple

Well, it's been a while since I posted on here, life just got in the way and crafting has been on the 'back burner' for a few weeks sadly.

I'm a little later in the day posting this, but here's my DT card for this week's challenge over on the Cute Card Thursday Blog.

 

The theme for this week's challenge is 'Clean and Simple' and Whiff of Joy Stamps are sponsoring the prize.

 

I used a scalloped C6 base card, a Joanna Sheen die, Stampin'Up! cardstock, ink and sentiment stamp and a Waco Pearlmaker Pen.

 

Firstly I used a scrap of blue card to cut out the die, then cut it again from a scrap of yellow card and cut just the daisy blooms from the yellow die cut.  I then attached the yellow blooms over the blue on the whole die cut.

 

I glued the die cut to the base card and added a faux pearl in the centre of each flower using a Waco Pearlmaker Pen.
 

Finally, I stamped the sentiment onto a scrap of white card and cut it out, gluing it over the lower part of the die cut.

 

I hope you've enjoyed your visit today, do check out the creations from the rest of the DT over on the CCT Blog.

 

Thanks for dropping by, have a great day.

 

Hugs
 

Wynneth

  x