Merci Beaucoup

I needed to make a card as a thank you to a lovely friend who hosted me on holiday, and made one then at the last minute changed my mind as to the sentiment. This was take two, quick, easy and prettily effective.

The zingy colour palette is from CAS C&S (thank you ladies, fantastic challenge as always, definitely sorry I'm not able to play along every week), and I'm going to unapologetically enter this as Addicted to Stamps and More for 'Holiday' week, although you may say it's not close enough to count :-) With the sentiment centre stage I'm also entering in a 'new to me' challenge focused on words.

The sentiment is coloured with pencils onto a old book page, and the background is distress inks brushed onto good quality cardstock.

CAS Colours and Sketches #168: Melon Mambo, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight

Addicted to Stamps and More #188: Holiday

House of Cards: Use script and/or colour combination (I chose script without colour)
AAA Cards #62: Anything Goes

Grungy honeycomb

Most of the inspiration for this card comes from Stamplorations. I made it a couple of weeks ago for a friend, and the palette was then a current one, not so any more!

It's a bit grungier than normal for me, but I like the effect. The honeycomb is texture paste through a stencil, coloured with ink. The stamp is a Clarity stamp, coloured with Spectrum Noir pencils, and then distressed around the edge of the topper.

Stamplorations - March CAS (optional colour twist = yellow)
Stamplorations -  March Theme and Sketch (stamps and texture)
Addicted to Stamps and More #186 - Anything Goes

Easter Chick

This sweet little chap is another one of my collection of Clarity stamps, as is the egg behind him. I think I bought a bunch of Easter stamps last year, but haven't used any of them before. The plethora of Easter changes allows me to remedy that fact.

The colour challenge over at Just Us Girls is precisely that, a challenge. You may have noticed that I don't really do pastels, and I've also left my alcohol markers stranded in a box, so I fished out a few bits to do something different (for me at least).

I've included Addicted to CAS in my 'pile' of challenges as I think the colours are delicate, as is the leaf work in the egg, and adorable chick.

Just Us Girls #335: Pink, Purple, Yellow (Pastels)
Addicted to CAS #84: Delicate
Sweet Stamping: Easter
Allsorts #355: Easter
AAA #60: Easter
Friday Mashup #245: Easter (Sorry to hear this is the last MashUp)

Christmas Scene

I'm going to ask forgiveness from the conventional challenges today, as I enter another Christmas card into a ordinary challenge before Easter! I couldn't resist the Red/Green combo at CTD for this lovely (embossed) Holly Stencil. I then built the image in the centre in this lovely shade of lavender. The colour really does make me think of summer hedges of that beautifully scented flower.

One Layer Christmas Card #28
Color Throwdown #384 - Lavender, Red, Green
ABC Christmas - F is for Frills/No Frills (I went for the No Frills, CAS, one layer option)
CAS on Sunday #79 - Stencil it
Jingles Belles - Christmas Past/Vintage

Musical Interlude

I wanted to make a thank you card for a musical acquaintance of mine, who happens to be a lover of Edward Elgar's music. So the music represented on this card is an accurate representation of the opening chorus of his Oratorio The Apostles (The Spirit of the Lord is upon me). Perfect music as we approach Easter, and an I anticipate an unexpected twist on 'E'. I was going to stamp the staves, but it didn't work, so it's hand written instead (takes me back to childhood music theory classes!).

The hand made background, and layering piece, were made using ink on a gelli plate. The sentiment was enhanced using Spectrum Noir pencils

CASology #189 - Doodle (my doodle is the hand written music)
Colour Q #333 - Always Artichoke, Kiwi Kiss, Gumball Green, Old Olive
Just Add Ink  #303 - Just add 'E' (My E is for Elgar)
Shopping our Stash #243 - O Me Lucky Charms  (I've gone for the mostly green option)

Strutting his stuff

A young chap I know has a birthday this week, and I wanted something simple, arty and most definitely not feminine, I hope he thinks this fits the bill :-)

The cockerel stamp is from Clarity, and I've coloured it using the ColourQ palette with Spectrum Noir pencils. I've flipped the CAS on Sunday sketch, and added some grass with some little texture stamps.

Colour Q #332 - Brilliant Blue, Calypso Coral, Coastal Cabana, Summer Starfruit
Sweet Stamping - Boys to Men

Simon Says Wednesday - A bit O'Green
CAS On Sunday #78 - Sketch

Pretty in Pink

This card is the product of a variety of challenges, first and foremost of which was a lightweight card to send abroad.

Yesterday Sketch Saturday was a nice simple layered piece, so there I go again and decide to 'faux' layer it. I won't say it's my best attempt, in fact this is definitely not one of my best cards, but it works, and I learnt various things as I went along. With more time it might have developed differently, but I'm quashing my perfectionist streak, and saying 'good enough', and good enough to share. It's not as if I'm getting to get another chance to enter some of these challenges before the deadlines have come and gone.

It hasn't photographed very well, but you might just be able to make out some embossed flowers around the edge, which have been been brushed over with ink creating the resist effect.

Clarity #37 - All about the Girls
Allsorts #353 - International Women's Day
Sketch Saturday #402
Sweet Stampin' - Unusual Coloured Hair
Color Throwdown #382 - Hot Pink, Teal and Black
Simon Says Wednesday - Touchy Feely (Add some texture)