New challenge at Southern Girls

A new challenge goes live today at Southern Girls.  Its a favourite "Anything Goes" Challenge.  We all know how those work, right?  Pop on over to the blog for all the details and look forward to seeing all your lovely entries.

My card features an image from Lacy Sunshine, one of the generous sponsors  for this challenge.  Heather Valentin is the artist and she has some amazing images to choose from so be sure to take a look.  This image is coloured using pencil.  I die cut an oval in the design paper and popped it uo on foam with the image behind, I used a scalloped edger to cut both sides for a little extra detail.  I added several little blooms around the oval before finishing with a few pearl stars.

Look forward to seeing your creation in the challenge.

Come back again soon

Karen

xo

Sweet Summertime

The June release from Frantic Stamper is Summertime and Leisure time.  Its not very summery temperature wise here but today its the perfect winters day.  Blue skies, cold, crisp and clear. Although we have had a lot of rain the last day or so and the next few ahead are forecast to be just like today.  If you can find a patch of sunshine its just beautiful.

Todays card features a new die set called Day at the Beach.  It contains the classic icons we would associate with a day at the beach.  Bucket, spade, ball and sandcastle.  As teenagers my children still like to build at the beach.  Their sandcastles are much larger and more elaborate than as littlies and their spades are more like the big garden variety these days but the lure of the sand is still there.

I chose a piece of design paper that reminds me of the beach and cut a circle from it.  I then blended a piece of white in matching colours to place behind.  I stamped my sentiment and die cut a sandcastle placing it to show in the background.  I then cut the ball, bucket and spade to create a little trio in front of the circle.  Finishing up with a swirl of pearls to represent the waves and bring the card together.

There are lots of wonderful dies in this release so be sure to pop to the store and check them out.

Thanks for your visit today.

Karen

xo

Frantic Stamper products used

Day at the Beach die set

Stitched Circle die set

 Sweet Summertime Clear stamp sentiment set

Stand Tall, Aim High.

Stand Tall, Aim High is a sentiment from one of the new Frantic Stamper stamp sets.  I think when Kathy made this set she intended the sentiment to accompany Gladys the Giraffe but I decided to use it with the new Cactus Edger.  Something just a little different.

I used the edger as the focal point in my card not just in the background.  I went for colours you associate with the dessert and South America, greens, yellow, orange and brown.  I cut the edger
from the striped paper and then again in three different greens so I could cut the cacti and stack them on the base.  Some I used one layer others I used two or three to add some dimension.  I then placed a strip of the striped paper in behind the edger before adhering it to the paper with the clouds.  This just seemed to show off the shape of the edger better.

I attached the finished piece to some kraft card stock before adding some twine and a couple of mini flowers.

I know I usually think of edgers as that additional something but in this instance it was such a lovely edger it was nice to use it a little differently.

Frantic Stamper products used

Cactus Edger

Wild Sentiments

Thanks for coming by today

Karen

xo

Sparkle and Shine at Southern Girls

There's a new challenge at Southern Girls and its all about sparkle and shine.  We have 2 great sponsors for this challenge.  My card uses products from a company I think we are all familiar with. My Favourite Things.

I started by stencilling Background Hearts with embellishment mousse onto a piece of card stock.  This adds a lovely shine, which unfortuately you can't see in the photo.  Using MFT Steel Grey premium Dye Ink I stamped the images and sentiments.  They are from the stamp set called Somebunny.  One of my all time favourite sets.  After colouring and die cutting the bunnies I added a little sparkly bow to each one.  I fussy cut the bows rather than die cutting them as I didn't want the white outline.  The centre bunny is glued flat whilst the outer two are popped up on foam tape.

To add a little more sparkle I added a bit of silver glitter paper down the side, with a strip of Itsy Bitsy Polka dot paper to match the card stock.

Now if you want the chance to win some MFT goodies, create a project with some sparkle and shine and go enter the challenge.  We love to see your creations.

My Favourite Things ship worldwide so we can get the products down here.  They also have a local supplier Krafters Cart here in NZ but stock goes really fast.

Look forward to seeing your creations.

Thanks for popping in today

Karen

xo

Happy Birthday LOTV

A great big Happy Birthday to LOTV who turn 14 this month.  Thats no mean feat in this industry so congratulations to them.  As part of the celebrations we are having this fabulous blog hop with lots of our super talented Design Team sharing birthday cards.

You should have arrived here from the wonderfully talented Mary G.  I hope you have enjoyed all the gorgeous creations from the DT and remembered to leave comments along the way.  One commenter will win a £10 voucher to the LOTV store.  There are so many gorgeous images to choose from you'll have so much fun spending it if your the lucky winner.

My card features Thoroughly Modern Miss May.  These are such great images for teens.  I have left my card design pretty simple and not too fussy.  Black and White is a very classic combination which sets the image off nicely with a little strip of yellow to accentuate her dress.  I stamped the sentiment in red to bring it all together and added a few sparkly glass gems which pick up all the colours in the card.

I'm sending you to your last stop on the hop with the lovely Yvonne 
So glad you joined in the fun.  Good Luck!! 

You can visit the Lili of the Valley website here – www.liliofthevalley.co.uk

Hope to see you back soon

Karen

xo

Its your Bird-day!!!

Tomas the Toucan says "It's your Bird-day".  Tomas is another of the new critters from Frantic Stamper.  He's a fun die to work with and you can easily create a Toucan in a variety of colours.  He's such a cheerful fellow.  I die cut him in black then in several other colours to piece on top to create my version of a Toucan.  He comes with the branch that you can sit him on.

In the background of the circle you can see one of the new stencils called Tropical Leaves.  Stencils are something not new to me but something I haven't used much, so I'm still learning.   For this background I used Embossing Mousse which adds a lovely shimmer.  I used 3 different colours, a green base and then a yellow and an orange brushed over the top in places. I placed it in behind the circle the layered some Tropical Leaf Die cuts around the circle to give Tomas the appearance of being in the forest.

I then stamped the sentiment and used a long speech bubble to cut it out.  Loving these punny sentiments with this release.

Frantic Stamper products used

Tomas the Toucan

Tropical Leaves stencil

Long Speech Bubbles

Toucan Sentiments

Tropical Leaves

Bye for now

Karen

xo

Lorenzo the Llama goes on an Adventure

Lorenzo Llama is a new die from Frantic Stamper and he sure looks like he's ready to go on an adventure.  I had some fun with this guy.  I mad a little beach scene for him using the Palm trees edger and place a deck chair underneath.  I guess if a Llama was to have an adventure  he may well pack his bags pop on a hat and head for the beach.  Not somewhere you associate Llamas with.

As part of this new release there are lots of fun critters, a kangaroo, a flamingo, panda, elephant and more.  Alongside is a set of accessory dies which include Lorenzo's hat a pirate hat and a tophat plus other fun things.

For my card I cut the palm tree edger in brown card stock then again in green to make the leaves.  The edger cut is about 5.5 inches so to fit on this card I cut the small palm trees off and moved them to fit on the card base.  The deck chair is from a previous release which is linked to below.

I added a little pencil shading to Lorenzo to give the appearance of wool.  I die cut his head in brown card so I could add the patches and hair in a different colour. There are several stamps sets in this release all with punny little sayings designed to fit in the new long speech bubbles.

If you like punny, quirky and critters be sure to check out this release.

Frantic Stamper products used

Lorenzo the Llama

Llama Sentiments

Palm Tree Edger

Critter Accessories 

Long Speech Bubbles

Beach Umbrella and Chair

See you again soon

Karen

xo