It's so simple

 Morning all.  We have a lovely new challenge today over at Cardz4galz.  We would like 'Clean and Simple' projects please.  If you do join us - and I hope that you will - you will need to link your project in the comments section on the blog.  Unfortunately our blog organiser is ill at the moment.  Helen is doing a fabulous job of posting the blog but doesn't have enough access to the Linky tool.  Please bear with us and don't let it put you off joining. 

I love this card.  I got to use some scrap paper and that's always a bonus.  The butterfly is a stamp from Laurel Burch.  I was so pleased with it I made a couple more for my Church and Charity boxes.  Right, I'm off to work.  Please remember Cazro in your prayers.  We need her back on the blogs.

Thanks for reading. 

Love Dawn x

Getting Inky

 Morning all.  we have a fun new challenge this morning over at Cardz4galz. Shell would like us all to 'Get Inky' on your projects.  This is a bit out of my comfort zone as I don't like to get my hands dirty.  I do, however, like to stencil. Before I started with that I used some distress inks and water to paint a subtle background.  I then used the same colours and a stencil from Funky Fossil.

I finished it off with a butterfly stamp by Laurel Burch.  I added a greeting ans some gems and that was it. I very rarely create my own backgrounds so it would be good to see your inky ideas.  Please pop over and join in.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

EmBOSSING it

Morning all.  It's a bit of a sad day over at The Alphabet Challenge as this one will be Silvi's last before stepping down from the Design Team.  She has chosen 'dry embossing' for the letter D.  I do love my embossing folders and could have had a field day with this but I chose to keep it simple.  As well as my full sized folders I also have some thin strip folders.  For my card I chose one and, once I'd embossed it, masked off the rest of the card and blended worn lipstick and squeezed lemonade distress ink over the pattern.  My original plan had been for a rectangular panel but my masking tore some of my card so I've cut it down to a square.  I blended a little bit more card and stamped some butterflies from Laurel Burch onto it.  I fussy cut them and gave them a coat of shimmer pen before adding them to my card.  Throw on a bit of bling et Voila.  Can you tell I've been learning French during lockdown, lol.  

It wasn't quite to my original plan but the embossed panel worked, which was the whole point to the card.  Please pop over and see what Silvi and the rest of the team have created.  It would be nice if you could join in the challenge and send her off with a blast.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Xtra. Xtra...

The Alphabet Challenge has a new letter for you today.  We are looking for X - as in Xtra Embellishments.  Time to throw everything at it.

I went all out with this one.  You've got sequins and gemstones and I even threw in some sparkle on the wings of my butterflies.  The butterflies are the ones I'd coloured up and then decided not to use for the critter challenge last week.  Once I'd decided to use them I just went through my stash looking for colour co-ordinating elements. I'm actually quite chuffed with the result.

What do you think?  It'll cost a fortune to post. It's got dimension to the shaker element and then gems on top.  

OK, lets see what you've got hidden away in your stash.  Time to use all those xtra embellishments.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Whatever you Wish

How long have you got.  I've got a wish list that's way longer than the traditional three - starting with more time.  Today's Alphabet Challenge allows you to make 'whatever you wish'.  It's probably a good job as February is heavy for birthdays and I am working such long hours at the moment that I could combine this challenge with a card I really needed to make.  I think I've mentioned before that Will's step mum volunteers for Cat's Protection and loves her moggy's to bits.  When I saw the Laurel Burch cat stamps I had Viv in mind as I bought them.  I adored colouring him and making the messy, throw everything at it background.  It's so not my style but I had such fun. I've only just managed to get the ink off my fingers.

I used distress inks of various shades on the background and sprayed it with water.  I then flicked some sparkle from a spectrum noir sparkle pen before adding my stencilled texture paste.  I added embossing powder to the texture paste and heated it to give a sort of bubbled texture (it's not really clear in the picture).  I then added my cat - isn't he handsome - and a bit of bling.  I then ran out to the car to meet her at the pub for a birthday lunch.  Did I mention I was short of time at the moment.

Anyway, I'm sure you have lots of wishes to fulfil our criteria.  I'd love to see what you create.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Not Hip to be Square

Morning all.  Are you ready for a new Make My Monday Challenge.  This time we want anything but a square card.  This makes it a real change for me as square is my go to shape (with the occasional rectangle for variation).  I wanted to move away from normal shapes altogether and go with something totally different.  To make my card base I chose my largest sort of semi-circle die and stuck it to a card base before cutting around to get the card blank.  I inked it up with worn lipstick and spun sugar distress inks and splattered it a bit with water.  The cat stamp is a new one that I had to have when I saw it. It's a Laurel Burch design from Stampendous. I loved the images but I'm a bit intimidated by the bold colours she uses.  The stamps came with a stencil so I added texture paste to my blank and used enchanted gold embossing powder over it.  When you do it with texture paste it bubbles when you heat set it and I love the effect.  

I have a crazy cat lady best friend and this will be going to her for her birthday. She loves red so that was my main colour choice.

It's not my usual style but I love how it turned out and I will be using the stamp set much more now I've coloured it once.  Besides, I have a crazy cat lady mother in law with a birthday in February.  She's gonna love this stamp set.

Please pop over and have a look at the DT Inspiration.  There are some beautiful projects to inspire you.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x