Not part of my original plan...

Hello!  I'm back from our holiday in very hot and sunny Italy and have been trying to adjust to the autumnal weather here in SW Scotland.  Wet, windy and decidedly chilly - not what I want in our school holidays!

Anyhoo, I'm here to let you know that we are starting new challenge at Sweet Stampin' today.  Our challenge theme is No DP, so step away from those papers, folks!

I had an idea in my head to use some of my pink and grey inks and I spent a not inconsiderable amount of time masking a perfect circle and filling it with little stamps from Avery Elle and Papertrey Ink.  It took a couple of attempts to get the look I wanted and when I was finally happy I decided to add a little sentiment in the bottom corner of my one layer card. However, I didn't take into account the rules of Sod's Law and consequently smudged and splodged and generally b******d up my design. 

Rather than start over, I reached for the Lil' Inker stitched dies and cut out my flowery circle, adhering it to the back of some pale grey cardstock.  I held my breath when I stamped the sentiment as I have no doubt that there would have been some very unladylike language if I had messed things up again.

I die cut a few Memory Box butterflies from vellum which I glued together for a layered look. I also added quite a lot of sequins  to complete the design. 

I hope you can join us at Sweet Stampin' this week.  The lovely Emma from Flat Friends is sponsoring us and has some digis to give away.

Enjoy the weekend!

Tracey xx

Oh deer!

It's time for another challenge at Christmas at Sweet Stampin'!  This time we'd like to see (rein)deer on your projects.  I went with an easy-to-colour reindeer image from Digistamp Boutique.

I coloured the reindeer with Copics, adding some red gloss to his nose and yellow sparkle to the star with some Sakura pens.  I found the design paper in my stash (think it might be Authentique) and I matched this with some plain twine.  A really simple design which didn't take too long - must make a note of that as I'll have to make a start on my Christmas cards during the school holidays!

We're being sponsored this month by Funky Kits who have 2 digis to give away to one lucky winner.  Definitely worth playing along for!  You'll get all the details plus a look at the fabulous inspiration cards the CaSSettes have made over at the challenge blog.

Hope you can join in the fun this month!

Hugs

Tracey xx

Bear with me!

It's new challenge time at Sweet Stampin' and this week our theme is "Bear with Me".  Easy - we'd just like to see a bear/bears on your creations. 

Here's what I made

I used a LotV stamp which hasn't seen the light of day for quite some time and coloured the image with Copics before fussy cutting the bear (without the frame).  I then stamped the image again and used foam tape to layer the fussy-cut image on top.  I cut a square of gingham paper from my stash and as luck would have it, found some peach-coloured ink which matched the paper perfectly.  I used this and a Wplus9 stamp to make the sentiment, which I cut out with a circle die.

I hope you can join us at Sweet Stampin' this week.  We're being sponsored by Freckled Fawn who have a lovely prize to give away to our randomly chosen winner.  For more details, plus a look at the gorgeous inspiration projects the Sweeties have  made, head on over to the challenge blog.

The Boy Wonder and I are off on holiday soon.  This time we're heading to Italy, so I'll hopefully have some lovely photos to share with you when we get back.

Hugs

Tracey xx