Two New Challenges

Hi guys.  Today I have two new challenges to tell you about!  The first one is happening over at The Craft Barn's blog and this challenge is to make an unusual shaped card. Click here for more details.

This is the card that I  made for this challenge using my Marianne Creatables die that I bought a little while ago from The Craft Barn.  I had it in mind at the time that this would make a brilliant shaped card and was quite pleased with the result!  The background papers for the card were made using a large Hero Art stamp called Reversed Flowers and Leaves that I bought from The Glitter Pot.  This is such a lovely stamp and iit makes great background papers just by inking it up with your inkpads.  I used Distress inkpads in Antique Linen and Milled Lavender for these papers.  Not only does the Marianne frame cut out this wonderful shape but it embosses the design around the outside too which I coloured to match the rest of the card using Copic markers.

Here's a closer look at the middle panel for you.  You can see that background stamp in more detail now.  The main image is one of my favourite stamps at the moment called Beary Big Hugs from the Belles 'n' Whistles range.  She was just the right size for the panel too!  I coloured her with my Copic markers and then used the darker plum coloured Copic (that I used on her sweater) to colour my ribbon to match. I took this same marker and used the brush tip to go around all the cut out detail of the frame.  The wording 'special friends' came from my Fancy Flourish stamp sheet.

To add some sparkle I used touches of both Platinum and Diamond glitter glue.

Here's a different view of the card.  No doubt you will see some more of this type of shaped card as I really liked the effect it gave.  By the way the winner of this challenge will receive a surprise £30 goodie bag!!  So don't forget to head on over to The Craft Barn's blog to find out all the details to enter and also to see the other cards that some of the DT came up with!

Okay now onto Challenge Two and this one is happening over on the new Stamp Man's ATC Swaps blog.  The theme for this first challenge is - Wings.  What I like about ATC's is that you only have a small space to decorate so these don't tend to take so long  to do.  Although it does depend on how intricate you decide to make them! 

As you can see I actually kept my offering quite simple! (GASP!!)  See I can do simple - sometimes!!  Well sort of!  I made the background paper myself using a Bundled Sage Distress inkpad and then used the same inkpad to stamp the spriggy background. (The sprig came from my Japanese Thoughts stamp sheet.)  I then used a Gold Encore inkpad to randomly stamp a smaller sprig and the smaller dragonfly (both from my Japanese Minis sheet) onto a strip of black card. Next I stamped and embossed the rectangular dragonflies frame (also from my Japanese Minis) using a black pigment inkpad and clear detail embossing powder. I coloured the imagery using Tombow pens and a waterbrush and added some sparkle (which you can't really see!) using Diamond glitter glue. The Japanese Wording (from my Japanese Minis stamp sheet) was stamped using a black dye based inkpad. 

The rest of the DT have done some really fab ATC's too which you can see over on The Stamp Man's ATC blog.

By the way The Stamp Man are currently doing all of their stamp sheets at 20% off so now is a great time to get any that you might have been thinking about!  Plus they are also doing free P&P at the moment!! Click here to go and see!

Well that is finally all from me today.  I hope that you made it to the end!  If you did I hope you are all enjoying some lovely weather!