Believe it or not - Navy, Hot Pink and Mustard?????

These are the colours for the Playdate Cafe Challenge this week!

Not colours that you would immediately think of combining.

Anyway, I had a go and made a tag:

Inks used are Faded Jeans and Wild Honey Distress Inks and Raspberry Adirondak.
Stamps are Lavinia, Elusive Images and Cavallini.
Martha Stewart butterfly punch and background is a Tim's texture fade.
I like how the mustard and blue inks have blended to a matching green (as you would expect really! LOL!)
Must dash now as I have some holiday packing to do.
X

Let's Ink It Up Challenge

The challenge on Let's Ink It Up is "Anything goes - with a twist". So we can create anything as long as it has yellow on it somewhere.  I'm not a yellow "lover" but it's great to add as a highlight or accent, and I've made this ATC.

I stamped my background using the resist technique and Peeled Paint and Broken China Distress Inks, but I stamped my sun first and masked it.  Then I just added some Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink to the sun, added my German Scrap Moon and some words from an old book, outlined with inktense pencils.
I inked the edges with Faded Jeans Distress Ink.
My little moon came from Pollock's Toy Shop in Covent Garden in London.  I bought some fabulous massive wings at the same time but I'm waiting for the right project to use those on.
Thanks for looking X

Back from hols with a PDCC and step away from the macaroons!Take 2.

We are just home from a great week in London, so time to give my feet a rest and have a go at another Play Date Cafe Challenge!

Two greens and a blue.

This was more difficult than I first thought, and I did struggle. I'm still not happy with the arrangement of the embellishments, but sometimes things just won't fall in to place. This is my second attempt, which I like better than the original, but I'm still not thrilled with. LOL!

All paper used is Ideology.

The flower is made using a PaperArtsy die, and I sprayed the top layer with Glimmer Mist and went round the edge with a Martha Stewart Punch and some apple green ink. There are two more "plain" layers underneath, but they don't really show here. It's finished off with felt leaves and a brad.

The background leaves are Wendy Vecchi and the bird on acetate is by Elusive Images.

The tag has some script in the background stamped with apple green ink and the bird image is by Cavallini. I put another layer of Martha Stewart punched paper under the green ribbon and again inked the edge.

Back to London - my crafty friend Paul has raved about Laduree macaroons in the past.  Now I quite like macaroons, but can take them or leave them, but since we were in Harrods one day I thought I would try some.  OMG - they are one of the scrummiest things I have EVER tasted - good job they are quite small and that I only bought 5 - they didn't last long.  Will definitely be going back for more next time! Absolutely yummy, another addiction! Thanks Paul (I think)  X

Play Date Cafe Challenge 42. Yo Ho Ho

These are the lovely colours chosen by Sarah this week at the Playdate Cafe Challenge.

I need a birthday card for a young man in Wales who is going to be 7 soon, so I made this card for him:

The background was made using Distress Inks - Vintage Photo, Tumbled Sage and Broken China and the edge of the card was inked with Vintage Photo.  The sand was stamped with A Stamp in the Hand stamp.
The Pirate and Ship were coloured with Copics and the map was coloured with Distress Inks and then decoupaged.
The Palm tree was made using a Basic Grey Stamp and the sentiment is Hero Arts.
Oval punch and Oval Scallop punch are Stampin' Up.
There is a little bit of Stickles glitter glue on the sea but it doesn't show up on the photo.

Thanks for looking. X

Etsy Inspired Challenge

This week the inspiration comes from Cathy Walters on the Etsy Inspired Challenge which I found from Julie's Open Window - thank you Julie.

 Cathy makes beautiful pendants and the item which inspired me in her shop was this:

and this is what I made:

The large tag came from Graphicus and I embossed it in my cuttlebug using a Tim Holtz folder. Then I added Distress Inks in Pumice Stone  and Vintage Photo and sprayed it with Walnut Gold Glimmer Mist.  I punched the bottom of the tag with my threading water punch.

I added a band of 7 gypsies gaffer tape and a strip of red ribbon and then I threaded my letters through on jump rings (Ideology).
The images came from ancient Distressables paper that I had in my stash.
The Fleur de Lis and Clip are from Ideology (again!) and I don't remember where the circular metal frame came from.

The postmark stamp is by Paperartsy and the stripy ribbon is from Stampin' Up.

I went around the tag with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then I added some highlights to some of the embossed background with gold pearl powders mixed with water. I also blobbed (good technical term there!) some of this on to some of the images too.

X

Play Date Cafe Challenge Tuscan Sun

I just love this week's colours on the Play Date Cafe Challenge - beautiful Tuscan hues.  I adore Italy and these colours just make me long to be there again.

I decided to make a tag:

Background is Distress Inks - Fired Brick, Rusty Hinge and Wild Honey used with a mask. This was then inked with a crackle stamp and some script by 7 gypsies.
The Flower is Tim Holtz die coloured with the inks and finished with an ideology flower.
The tag is My Mind's Eye, edged with distress ink, and the letters are from Adornit and edged with an Adirondak pen.
The token, pin and key are ideology.
Ribbon is Stampin' Up! and the lace was in my stash.
Mmmm think I'll go get some holiday brochures!
Thanks for looking X

Tuesday Taggers - Black

Black is the theme for Tuesday Taggers this week.
Background stamp is Paperartsy. Flower stamp is Hero Arts (VERY old stamp), with black distress stickles and stardust stickles added.
Ribbon is American Crafts and I bought the button with lots of lace bits on Saturday from a local shop.
Gems are by Kaisercrafts.
So....... lots of black and white this week.  I like it! X

I don't know when to call it a day!

 Had a lovely, busy family weekend, so I've not had chance to play with this until today. This week at the play date cafe the colours are black and white with a splash of green.

 I originally had just used the four black and one green flowerheads (Paperartsy) on this card and in hindsight that was fine......... but then I added the smaller flowerheads (Lavinia) and I think it has ended up looking too crowded, but time for posting is running out so I shall have to let it be. 
The edge "dotty" stamp is by a stamp in the hand.

I must work harder at clean and simple! LOL!  I never know when to leave things alone and have to keep adding extras.  I shall re-do this for myself using just the five large flowerheads.
X