Give us a Kiss!

 Morning all.  We have the Kissing Technique for you to try over at Make My Monday today.  Well, I am a creature of habit and I like my cards to involve paper and stamps. This wasn't going to work with this theme so I had a look for a tutorial and found this one by Natasha Foote.  I do follow Natasha anyway so I know it would be simple and easy to follow.  She even makes her own stamps to use the technique on.  

I didn't go as far as cutting my own stamps but, to be honest, what I had in my stash for a block image wasn't much.  I had a butterfly and a square.  I wasn't sure my butterfly was big enough to showcase the technique so I used a square.

I used a light blue ink for the square and 'kissed' it with a darker ink on a ferny leaf stamp that I had free in a magazine. It took me a few attempts to get three squares I was happy with.  I hope you will pop over and join in the fun.  It's nice to try something different every now and again.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

V is for Vehicle

 Sorry I'm late, again!  It's been chaos this week.  I've been up to my neck in it.  We are up to the letter V over at the Alphabet Challenge and V is for 'vehicle'.  I was really pushing my luck with this one.  I know I needed to get a card done but I had so much else to do.  Luckily I have my trusty basket of card backgrounds.  When I have too many scrap pieces of backing paper I look through some sketches on Pinterest and put together some card backgrounds.  That way, when I'm in the mood to colour images, I can choose one and colour to match.  Hey presto, quick card. Well, I didn't have time to colour an image so I opted for a quick topper to finish this background off.

I should have scheduled my post when I created it but it was really late.  And now I'm really late too.  Oh well, hopefully I will be better organised next week.  For a thrown together card I'm actually really pleased with it.

Please pop over and join in the fun.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Something Sparkly

 Morning all.  My turn to pick the topic for today's Cardz4galz  challenge.  Time to get the sparkly stuff out.  Galz love a bit of sparkle. I want you all to 'make it sparkle'.  Then you can all struggle to upload a decent picture - just like I did.  I honestly didn't have this in mind when I chose the topic.  However, I recently watch this video by Natasha Foote and I felt the urge to get out my very old Twinkling H2Os.  

It really is a rubbish photo.  It really sparkles in real life.  I used a stamp from Tracey Hey and heat embossed it in silver before painting it with the H2Os.  They contain mica to make them shine.  I added a few sequins just to finish it off and matted it on some shiny blue card.

OK, time to crack out the shiny stuff.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Something beginning with...P

 Morning all.  You would be forgiven for thinking that the week had flown past and we were on Friday's alphabet challenge.  Unfortunately, it's only Tuesday and it's Cardz4guyz.  We are looking for anything beginning with 'P' though.  And if you pop back on Friday we'll have another letter entirely.  Confused?  Me too!

My letter P is for Pinecones.  I inked up some card in different shades of brown and cut them out for my focal point.  I'm really pleased with them.

To be honest, I think the foliage on my patterned paper is supposed to be jungle leaves but I thought they look like my die cut fronds so I went with it.  I'm not sure what I will use it for at the moment so I haven't added a sentiment as yet.  There's plenty of room for it at the bottom.

OK, let's see those subjects beginning with P.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x 

Kendra's Card Challenge

 Morning all.  Today I have a little something different and a lot of cards to show for it.

One of the advantages of being on a design team is that I get to see so many blogs that I wouldn't know about otherwise. One of the blogs that I regularly visit as a result of my commenting duties is Pinky O'Hagan's.  I blame my latest obsession entirely on her.  It's Pinky's fault that I came across Kendra's Card Challenge.  Now, if like me you have a room full of patterned paper, I recommend that you go and check this out.  The challenge gives you cutting templates and card sketches to turn 6 sheets of patterned paper into 15 cards.  I've done this a few times now but I've never posted them to my blog before. Check out this lot:

My papers were double sided so you get lots of options if you don't like the first side.  It's entirely up to you how you decorate them.  Now I've done this set I'm going to have a go at some Christmas ones and get a head start this year.

There's always one that I don't love - no, I'm not telling you which - but I'm seriously pleased with the rest.  Which is your favourite?

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Winter - where ever you are

 I'm really sorry I'm late with today's post.  I'm struggling to keep on top of things at the moment.  It's gone crazy mad at work.  So many people have asked me for cards recently - which is lovely - but it's also the middle of winter and I just want to curl up with a good book under a blanket.  I realise that winter in some places isn't all cold weather and dark nights but to me it's all about staying cosy.  Over at Make My Monday today we would like your projects to reflect 'winter where you are'.  I am all about oversized jumpers and keeping warm.  Mum loves to crochet and I go to work with a different scarf on nearly every day of the week. My favourite at the moment is a long, wide one with pockets on the end.  As that is how I'm feeling at the moment I found a lovely new set of digital stamps that reflected it.

Not sure what's in the cup.  If it was me it would be either hot chocolate or earl grey tea.

The digi set is from Le Petite Market on Etsy.  I just love all the cosy girly images.  

Ok, let's see what winter is like in your neck of the woods.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Unequal to the challenge - I think not

 Morning all.  We are up to 'U for Unequal' over at the Alphabet Challenge.  Think large/small, short/tall, something huge and something tiny - that sort of thing.  I started off with thick and thin for my card and went from there.

I have several rolls of rose gold washi tape of varying widths.  I chose the widest and a thinner version of the striped pattern.  When I put it on my card it looked very boring so I ran it through an embossing folder - upside down! Oh well, a debossed panel would have to do.  I dug about in my dies for something to go on the panel and came up with a large and small butterfly.  I had some rose gold mirri card so I used that rather than introducing another colour.  I rather like the result.

Please come over and play.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

This one is so girly

 Well, after getting the Guyz challenge mixed up this week I really couldn't go wrong with the Cardz4galz Challenge.  With a theme of 'lace and pearls' I really had to make it girly.

The burlap and lace ribbon was a snippet left over from a friends wedding invitations.  I just added the flowers and wording along with some pearls I've had in my stash forever.  I think it looks so lovely on Kraft card with a muted gold cardstock to cut the bits from.  Once I had found the ribbon I really didn't have to think of the rest.  It just dropped into place and I love the result.

Please pop over and join in the fun.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Spot today's deliberate mistake

 Morning all.  I hope everyone had a happy and healthy break and that you are all raring to go at today's Cardz4guyz challenge.  I decided to use the Christmas break to catch up on my DT projects and raced ahead with the challenge of 'Spots and Stripes'.  It was only when I came to upload it to the Guyz page that I realised it was pink and had flowers on it.  Rats!  Back to the drawing board then.

Here's what I came up with in a hurry.

and, just because I had it all ready to go, here's the one I made earlier.

I'm really pleased with both but, as it's a guyz challenge, I have to like my doggy card more.  It's not one I would have made if I hadn't needed to come up with something quickly so I'm impressed it turned out as well as it did.

Please pop over and join in the fun.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Silver Snowflakes

 Morning all.  Our first challenge of the year for Make My Monday is to use 'Snowflakes' on your projects.  Living in the depths of Derbyshire we are used to snowflakes but they've been scarce this year.  Never mind.  I can create a few of my own.

My scrap box had the perfect paper in it and I just paired it with some silver glitter card for added sparkle.  I embossed a white sentiment onto a navy strip to finish it off and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Please pop over and join in the fun.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

New Year, New...Card

 Happy New Year to you all and thank you for your kind comments and support throughout a very difficult 2021.  I hope 2022 brings everyone happiness and health.  If you have both of those you are truly blessed.

We kick the new year off with the first Christmas card for this year.  Over at Sparkles Christmas Challenge we are looking for 'a winter scene'.  Oh joy, nothing like starting the year off out of my comfort zone!  I don't do scene cards.  The only stamp I had that I felt I could use I really don't like.  I know, why not go for the whole nine yards and watercolour it.  You know how bad I am at that.

Strangely enough I don't hate it.  I don't really love it but that was never going to happen.  I turned out way better than my expectations and I'm glad the theme challenged me.  The stamp was a magazine freebie and I never thought I'd use it but it came in handy after all.

If you all join in with the challenge I will have more of an idea and inspiration to do other scene cards so please have a go.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x