Clean and Simple

The new challenge theme at One Stitch at a Time today is Something Red.

 

For my DT creation I chose to work with this adorable Owl Landing digi stamp by Sentimental Susan:

 

 

I coloured the image with my Promarkers and carefully cut around it:

 

 

I'm still on a bit of a Clean and Simple kick and for this card I liked the idea of having my "something red" be red patterned paper showing through punched-out shapes on the card front. I used a 5x7" card blank and rounded the outside corners, for a clean, modern look. I used a Stampin' Up! punch to punch start shapes out of the card front and layered red patterned paper inside the card. I attached my owl image on foam pads, slightly overhanging the edge of the card.

 

 

To finish I stamped a sentiment using a Stampin' Up! stamp and added some little wooden star shapes which I coloured red with my Promarkers.

 

 

The challenge runs for a week and you don't have to use a Stitchy Bear product to enter but if you do you'll be in with a chance of winning our main prize. Entries not using a Stitchy Bear product will be entered into the draw to win a $3 gift voucher for the Stitchy Bear Digi Outlet.

 

Featured Artist: Rachel Anderson

It's Featured Artist Week at Sweet Pea Stamps and this month the Design Team are showcasing the stunning artwork of Rachel Anderson. I chose to work this this beautiful stamp called Amanita Muscaria:

 

 

I'm going through a bit of a minimalist, CAS phase at the moment and I think the clean and simple style works well with this pretty framed image. I coloured the image using Prismacolor pencils and added highlights to the white dots on the mushrooms using a white gel pen:

 

 

I kept my card really simple, matting white card onto black card for a border and layering a die-cut flourish behind the image. It would be easy to add a simple stamped sentiment to this card for whatever occasion I might choose.

 

Rachel's beautiful stamps are available in both digi and red rubber format from the Sweet Pea Stamps store and will be on special offer for this week only. :)

Bingo!!

Who doesn't love a game of bingo? And we crafters love to get creative with our very own version, don't we? I love bingo challenges, they are such fun and push you to think outside the box a little and use techniques/ideas that maybe you wouldn't usually.

 

We're having a bingo challenge at One Stitch at a Time this week. If you've never done one before, the concept is really simple. From the bingo card below, choose elements in a line across the card (across, down, diagonally, however you like) and use those elements in your creation.

 

 

Here's my bingo creation - I used the Great Tit Pine Cone digi stamp by Ike's Art and my choice of bingo line was: CAS, Ribbon or Twine and Green.

 

 

I coloured the digi stamp using my Prismacolor pencils...

 

 

And trimmed it into a panel to fit the front of my card. I matted the panel onto green cardstock and wrapped twine around it before attaching to the card front using foam pads. I also added a small stamped greeting.

 

 

I've been getting quite into the whole clean and simple style lately, it makes for such striking cards. :)

 

You don't need to use a Stitchy Bear product to enter the OSAAT challenge but if you do you can enter as many times as you like and you'll be in with a chance of winning our main prize. You can enter no more than 3 times without using a Stitchy Bear product and those entries will be entered into the draw to win a $3 gift voucher to the Stitchy Bear Digi Outlet.

 

And don't forget to let us know which elements from the bingo card you used! :)

 

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

2 Sisters - Thank You

Colour Me Creative Challenge - Anything Goes

Crazy 4 Challenges - Thankful

Di's Digis Designs - Thanks/Thanksgiving/Harvest

Hiding in my Craft Room - Thanksgiving

Brown Sugar - Anything Goes

Card Crafter's Circle - Thankful/Thank You

Card Makin' Mamas - Thankful Tidings

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - So Grateful

Digi Haven - We Give Thanks

 

Remembering

The new challenge starts today at Sweet Pea Stampers and our theme for this challenge is, appropriately enough, Let Us Remember/Thinking of You. 

 

I chose to work with one of my favourite Ching Chou Kuik stamps called Poppies From The Mist:

 

 

I decided to go really clean and simple with this card. I love how versatile Sweet Pea Stamps images are.. they are such beautiful, detailed stamps and they look fabulous on busy, detailed cards... but they also make for some very striking clean and simple cards.

 

 

I used the digi version of this image and simply printed it onto an A4 sheet of white cardstock, placing the image in the bottom right corner, with the sheet in landscape format, and then trimmed the cardstock to a 6x6 card size and scored and folded it to make my card.

 

I coloured the image in using Prismacolor pencils and a simple HB pencil:

 

 

When I decide who to give this card to, I will add a simple stamped sentiment in black ink... it could work for so many occasions... thinking of you... with sympathy... just a note...

 

The challenge runs for 2 weeks and you don't need to use a Sweet Pea Stamps product to enter, though obviously we would love to see your Sweet Pea Stamps creations. Entries that do use a Sweet Pea Stamps product will be eligible to win our DT Top Pick prize and there is also a randomly-drawn prize that is open to all entrants.

I saw a mouse...

Where? There on the stair. Where on the stair? Right there!

 

Karen Middleton has drawn some absolutely adorable new images of cute little mice and when I saw them I loved them all so much I just had to use all three of them together on one card. :)

 

 

I coloured these sweet little images with my Promarkers, using a running theme of red accents - the strawberry, the flower and the wording - to tie them together:

 

 

 

 

I cut each image out into 6x6cm squares and matted them onto coordinating red cardstock before mounting them onto a plain white card blank using foam tape:

 

 

To finish off the clean and simple design, I filled in the remaining space on the card with a heart shape cut from cardstock, coloured red with my Promarkers, and coated in a layer of clear crackle paint.

 

 

These adorable stamps are just perfect for so many occasions. They will be available shortly in the Sweet Pea Stamps store so keep an eye out for them. :)

 

 

Hello Summer

Well now, apart from today (of course!) the weather here has been mostly rather lovely for the past couple of weeks - the sun has been shining, the kids have been wearing summer dresses (and lots of suncream) and I've even caught a wee bit of a tan! :D

 

And, appropriately enough, the challenge theme this week at the Dilly Beans Designers & Friday Challenges blog is Summertime.

 

I decided to play with Megan's Doodle Flower image and had the idea to do a really Clean and Simple card with layered, coloured flowers and a large greeting. Here's how it turned out:

 

 

I printed the stamp in a variety of sizes and coloured them in with my Promarkers - using mostly last year's limited edition Summer colours. I loooove these bright, fresh, intense colours. Just really summery.

 

I then cut the flowers out and stamped my large greeting (a Stampin' Up! stamp) onto a white card blank using black ink...

 

 

... and then layered my flowers around and slightly overlapping the greeting, attaching a couple of them with foam tape for added dimension.

 

 

This flower digi stamp works awesomely for this idea of layering pretty flowers onto a card and I think the CAS style works really well. :)

 

Clean and Simple Christmas

I seem to be feeling the Christmas inspiration recently. :) I've already made one Christmas card for Creative Craft World's Beat the Christmas Rush linky party and now here's another one...
 

This one was very much inspired by this gorgeous digi stamp by Rebecca Sinz, one of the new releases at Sweet Pea Stamps. She's called Holly and as soon as I saw her I thought what a striking, unusual Christmas card she'd make (I love the way Rebecca draws faces, and her moody, gothic style). You can buy this image in digi format right now and you can pre-order (at special reduced pre-order price) the red rubber version, which will ship in February).

I coloured the image with my Promarkers, giving her festive red hair and a touch of goth-y eye make-up. :) I then trimmed the image to a rectangular shape and cut two more rectangles of the same size from white card which I then embossed using a snowflake embossing folder. I attached the three panels to a sideways DL card blank using foam tape and then cut a title from red cardstock using my Cameo.

And that was my clean and simple - but striking - Christmas card. And I've now got two Christmas cards done and it's only January! Go me! :)

 

Clean and Simple

I made this card for this week's "Use a Digi" challenge at One Stitch At A Time...

 

 

 

I coloured in the image (a pretty Stitchy Stamps digi stamp called Lady Bug) and trimmed it and laid it against a blank white card.... and then I played around with all sorts of pretty patterned papers and stuff but I just kept coming back to how nice it looked just against the plain white background.

 

So I decided to go Clean and Simple with this card and just added a flourish and a small sentiment stamped directly onto the card base with the image layered over it on foam pads. I think it really shows off the image.

This week's OSAAT challenge is sponsored by Joanna Sheen and you can be in with a chance to win a prize from Joanna if you enter the challenge using a Stitchy Bear image. Or if you enter without using a Stitchy Bear image, you will be in with a chance of winning a $3 gift voucher for the Stitchy Bear store. :)

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:
A Gem of a Challenge - Flowers
Allsorts - Autumn Colours
One Stop Craft - Anything Goes
Speedy and Friends - Leaves
Fussy and Fancy - Anything Goes
Pattie's Creations - Autumn Colours
Polkadoodles - Autumn
The Poodles Parlour - Anything Goes