Parisian influence

Realised as I spend the day scheduling these posts that I'm also giving you a bit of a European tour as well, do hope I'm not boring you all to tears ....... probably come back to an abandoned blog ? Today we are scheduled to dock in Lisbon at 8am, quite a spectacular entrance to this Portuguese city under the huge de Abril bridge, 2.2m wide spanning the Tagus and alongside the Cristo Rei statue which is a replica of the one in Rio. Tomorrow we head to Vigo in northern Spain.......the seafood restaurants that line the streets are sometning else, can't wait.

This card is one I made for a friends birthday and as I rather liked it ended up making a couple more very similar. My main image is Stamps Happen 80436 stamped as is my norm with versafine black and embossed with detail clear and coloured very lightly with Marvy pens. The wording is a Hero background stamp Life and beauty G2678. The DP is Scrappy Cat and I added some lace, a feather, flowers, pearls and ribbon.

Cupcake challenge

Cupcake challenge this week is "Green, pink, brown with animals and flowers". So another chance to use my new L-Em.com punch from Stampalot for the leaves........in case nobody realised, I so love this punch.

Just goes to show I might have too mush stash because I found this stamp and honestly can't remember buying it or even seeing it before. It's Inca 4009K and is really cute, can only think it got to the bottom of it's allotted drawer and there it stayed. I stamped with versafine sepia and embossed with detail clear hen cut out the image with Nesties on the Bug. I used Promarkers to colour the image and decoupaged the daisies and glittered the centres. The greeting os from Hero CL278 and DP is Paper Piazze and Scrappy Cat. Border was cut with Firkars threading water punch.

Inspirational Card Sketchers plus........

I am such a fan of Dawn B's sketches and this one for Inspirational Card Sketchers is no exception especially as it's not dissimilar to a design I often use on my demo and class cards (one for classes at Sir Stamplaot using My Minds Eye DP's is due an airing this week). And a first for me I have managed to incorporate four challenges into one, in honest this is a bit of a cop out as Creative Card Crew has the theme "Polkadots", Everybody Art Challenges "Dots and Stripes" and Spoonful of Sugar rounds things up nicely with "Swirls".

I have based my card around these very pretty coordinating DP's from Scrappy Cat, stamping onto some of the cut sections with Hero Leaf Flourish F5042 using Stayzon black. The swirl has been cut on Cricut home accents, inked with Adirondack acrylic dabbers and dipped in crystal glitter whilst still wet. Buttons, ribbon, slide, flowers and gems added to embellish.

Stamping for the Weekend

All sketches this week and you get to choose at Stamping for the Weekend - what a treat, so I have opted for Donna's sketch.

I stamped my main image - Hobby Arts FL1824G using versafine black and detail clear embossing powder and coloured in with my new Promarkers ........ well after buying all 92 got to get my use out of them and more importantly get the technique right ........ lots of practice required here still me thinks.

DP is from Scrappy Cat and top border cut with MS embossed scallop. The green buds are cut from Cricut Storybook, inked with Brilliance thyme and embossed with detail clear. Flowers have been done exactly the same but using Brilliance orchid and a touch of crimson, although the look very pinky in the photo they aren't that bright in reality, it's probably the reflection because they are embossed and shiny. I have also used the crimson to stamp the greeting which is a tiny section of one of the circle greetings from Woodware FRCL128.

Stamp Something

A super challenge from Stamp Something this week "Pink Birthday Somethings".

I have used a new paper from Scrappy Cat which I stuck to the main card and then cut three circles with nesties on the cuttlebug. I took another sheet of darker bazzil, marked the placement of the circles, ran through using scalloped nesites one size down for each circle, cut it down to the exact size matching the circles and adhered to the back. I stamped the images onto acetate, again carefully lining up to the 'widows', coloured the back with sakura pens and placed inside the card.

The floral stamp is Hobby Art FL1824G (Stampalot) stamped with black stayzon, the greeting is Hero CL278 which I bent into a semi circle to fit the window. I utilised the smallest cut outs to make a tag and added a glittered butterfly using PB3819D stamped twice onto vellum. Embellished with a bow and pearls.