Just Us Girls challenge #118

I got inspired this week when I decided to play along with the Just Us Girls challenge #118 sketch.

I've used my Stampin' Up! Domestic Goddess patterned papers for the background and squares. The faux stitching was done with the Jumbo Stitches wheel, which I've cut down so I can use each 'stitch' seperately. I've also added some Ruffled ribbon in Calypso Coral to co-ordinate with the papers.

The lovely Anya from The Greeting Farm gets an outing in the form of the 'Cuddle Anya' stamp, which I've coloured with Promarkers.

Art and Sole Postcard Challenge Week 1 - Austria

Here we are at week one of Darcy's Postcard Challenge and the first stop is AUSTRIA. As I'd just treated myself to a Klimt inspired digi image it was perfect timing to choose the home of that fabulous artist Gustav Klimt.

I printed the digi onto canvas paper and coloured the image with Promarkers. Boy was I glad that my Sister got me some fine nib attachments for Christmas!! I've also used Distress Inks in Antique Linen and Tea Dye, as well as adding some gold card highlights cut from a Christmas card I received (upcycling - got to love it!).

Here's a close-up showing how lovely and sparkly those gold bits are. 










The back of my postcard shows the beginning of correspondence between two people who have never met...yet. 'M' is sending the postcard to 'S' - a Mr S Sullivan of Brighton. But who is M? How does she know of Mr S, and why does she think she can get away with being so downright flirty?!?

Who knows where the journey will take them next week?.....

ILWS Stampin' Up! Mini Catalogue Blog Hop

To celebrate the launch of the new Stampin' Up! Mini Catalogue, some of us down at ILWS (In Love With Stamping) decided to have a blog hop. As I'm the last blog on the hop, chances are you'll have arrived here from the lovely Natalie's blog. I love the colours she's used, so classy and expensive looking.

Anyone who knows me will know that I just HAD to use the new Spice Cake papers and Spiced Paisley stamp set. These are so gorgeous and feature a lovely colour assortment that just makes me feel calm whenever I look at it. I knew I wanted to use it to create a distressed 'country chic' look and by chance I found a sketch that works perfectly. It's the featured sketch from week 40 at the Simply Stampin' challenge blog.

I've paired Soft Suede card with Pear Pizazz and used several designs from the Spice Cake papers. The Soft Suede panel is stamped with images from the Spiced Paisley set in Versamark and clear embossed.

I made a 'shabby chic' heart by sticking scraps of the Spice Cake papers down and overlaying with a punched heart. I then distressed the edges and sponged on some Soft Suede ink. The final touch was some faux stitching using my Early Espresso marker.

 

That's my creation, but if you haven't seen the rest of the ILWS blog hop, be sure to head on over to Alison's blog to start the hop from the beginning!

An exciting new project for 2012

Happenstance [hap-uhn-stans]- 

•  a film starring one of my favourite actresses, Audrey Tautou.

• a chance happening or event.

Sadly I have been unable to watch the film as it's stupidly expensive to get hold of. The second time I saw this word written down was today, on a friend's facebook status. Then, just minutes later, I experienced happenstance for myself.

Purely by chance I saw a post on Darcy Wilkinson's blog, Art and Sole signalling the start of the Postcard Challenge 2012. I had no idea what it was about but, quite frankly, I'd had a glass of wine and was intrigued ;)

The challenge is inspired by Nick Bantock's book 'Griffin and Sabine' (which I've now ordered from Amazon), which chronicles the correspondence between two strangers in the format of a book of removable postcards.

Details of the challenge can be found here and I'll be posting pics and more details of my entries as I complete them.