A little bird told me

I've made this card for my friend Sally whose birthday is coming up soon.  I've taken inspiration from two challenges:
Daring Cardmakers - A little bird told us (sponsored by the Ribbon Reel)
DYSU - Challenge #41 Use your scraps

The birds and birdcage are stamps from Woodware.  They were stamped onto scraps of card from my stash.  The birdcage background had a Stampin' Up jumbo wheel (very vintage) rolled over it
The sentiment is a Marion Emberson set, Sunshine and Flowers.
The background patterned paper is one of the many scraps from my stash

Dino Birthday

I made this card for one of my sons friends.  Had to do a bit of research in the many dinosaur books we have here to find a good dinosaur to draw.  Sketched it onto card, inked in some colours then heat embossed with thick clear embossing powder before cutting it out.  Stamped the sentiments with a small set of alphabet stamps and stuck over some geometric shapes cut out of coloured paper.
Am entering this card into two challenges -
Lexi's Creations : a card for a child
Hand Stamped Sentiments : impress us

Starry Birthday

I received a free star stamp with a magazine I bought recently and wanted to make a card with it.
The stars were inked with versamark then embossed with silver and sparkly black powder.  I inked in the background with some pale blues and greens, applying them with a sponge dauber.
The large letters were embossed in silver, then inked over with dark blue, then carefully cut out so that some of the blue background could still be seen.  The birthday part was handwritten.
Am entering this into the Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge: impress us

Birthday card

Have made this card for my Father-in-law's birthday later this month and am entering it into two challenges:
DYSU challenge 36 (Texture)
Anything Goes challenge 49 (Vintage / Shabby Chic).
The papers used were from my stash of magazine freebies, I cut out the shapes and distressed them.
The large letters are die cut using Tim Holtz vintage market alphabet and embossed with gold, the small sentiment is from a Woodware set.
The inspiration for this card came from the blog of a lady whose work I think is amazing - Jo Kill. (http://jo-kill.blogspot.com/)

Thank You cards

For this card I took a plain white 5x7 inch card blank, masked the edges of a square with post-it notes and sponged coloured inks (old olive, yoyo yellow, bashful blue and some pink) in the gap.  The flower is from Stampin' Up's Growing Green set, it was stamped 3 times in chocolate chip .  The flower stems were drawn with a black fine liner, and the sentiment (Stampin' Up Curly Cute) was added in chocolate chip.  Finished the card off by inking the edges with the pink ink.

This card is being entered into the DYSU challenge - Thank You

Thank You cards

Started this card by die-cutting the THANKS with Tim Holtz's Chip Block alphabet using thick card (a breakfast cereal box), then heat embossed it with black sparkle embossing powder.  I spaced the letters out on a scrap piece of paper, cut it to size then used this to create a rectangular mask.  This mask was then centred onto a piece of white paper and swirly stamps were stamped all around in black.  I highlighted some of the swirls with pink watercolour pencils and a black fineliner pen.  This was all then stuck together, and stuck onto a white card blank with a bit of dry embossing to create a border.

This card is being entered into the CAS-ual Fridays -Embossing challenge, and DYSU - Thank You challenge

Beware Pirates! - number 2

I had a go with a smooth background technique for this card (see http://www.monkeysee.com/play/2612-how-to-use-the-smooth-background-technique-for-your-card?source=ext), using chocolate chip, old olive and really rust inks on a glossy cream card base.  Once this was dry I stamped the pirate and text (from the Beware Pirates stamp set) with Versamark and heat embossed them with gold embossing powder.  This was a bit fiddly because the embossing powder stuck to the apparently still wet background but with a soft dry paintbrush I just about managed to remove the excess.  I had a go with another card in different colours after this one and cunningly stamped the image and text first to avoid that problem, however, the background then didn't go evenly over the raised embossing, so I think the first method is the winner!

Both of these cards are being entered into the Stampin' Up Only Challenge - For The Kids

Beware Pirates!

Used the Beware Pirates stamp set and an old road atlas for this card.
A page from the road atlas was soaked in cold tea overnight and left to dry.  A rectanglular-ish shape was then torn out, it's edges carefully burnt over a match, screwed up, unscrewed and just the middle bit stuck onto a square card blank.  I then rolled the edges a bit.
I stamped 2 of the skull and crossbone stamps using Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler inks.  The Cherry Cobbler one was stamped twice without re-inking so that it was nicely faded, then cut out and stuck on.
All the bits were stuck together and the Beware Pirates stamped in Cherry Cobbler

Anniversary Card

This card has been designed for 6 challenges -
The Shabby Tea Room, flower power
Hooked on Craft, with love
Papertake, hot hot hot
Cupcake Craft, vintage
Kaboodle Doodles, use those scissors
DYSU, sew (faux or real)

The sentiment was written, a wavy shape drawn around, cut out and edges inked
This was stuck on to some scraps of Stampin' Up patterned papers, which were drawn and then hand cut and holes punched around the edge
The background layers are Stampin' Up papers, then hand stitched to the card
The circle of flowers are punched out from coloured papers and selectively embellished with coordinating pearls

Spotlight Challenge Card - Sentiment

 

Birthday letters die cut with Tim Holtz Vintage Market alphabet

The patterned papers are from my stash

I cut the scalloped edges from plain white paper then used a Stampin' Up jumbo wheel (Texture) to put some colour on, inked the edges and punched holes along the edges.

The coloured flowers are cut from coordinating papers and stuck on, then embellished with a pearl