A Shiny Red Apple for the Teacher

Pretty soon it will be time to thank all those wonderful people who put so much energy and time into educating our children - I will be relying on this Verve Teachers Count Stamp set quite a bit in the next few weeks.

The Glossy Apple from 3 thicknesses of white cardstock using a Sizzix Original Die.  I coloured it with various alcohol markers and applied several coats of UTEE to make it nice and shiny.

Here's the sketch I used for some much needed inspiration to jumpstart my flagging mojo!

Viva la Verve April 2018 Sketch

I think bringing the teacher an apple is an excellent tradition that should be brought back in!

Less is More Challenge #369 Bring Something Back

The SSS Wednesday Challenge wants us to add some Texture

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Add some Texture

Other Challenges

PINspirational 6th Anniversary Anything Goes Challenge 

Happy Little Stampers April Anything Goes With Dies Challenge

Supplies: 

Verve Teachers Count Stamp Set;

Spellbinders M-Bossabilities Numbers & Letters;

Sizzix Originals Small Apple;

Crea-Nest-Lies XXL #21 Stitched Circles

QuickCutz Nesting Squares #2

Thanks for stopping by - especially if you take the time to leave a comment,

Kate

Hello Dolly

Two Hello Dolly cards to share with you today.   I just love this Clearly Besotted Hello and I've been "dying" to try it out since it arrived in Happy Mail last week.   I thought it would be fun to combine it with a Matryoshka doll from WMS You're a Doll - Simon and I love to sing along to the Louis Armstrong classic Hello Dolly !!!

The first is a very clean and simple card made for my friend Sonya who had her birthday today.

 The second is a bit fancier and uses Mojo Monday Sketch 348 - another brilliant sketch by Julee Tilman.  

The insides of both cards are stamped with a sentiment from the WMS Folk Art Label 25 - Have a wonderful Birthday.

I am also entering the second card in the Less is More Challenge  - to use more than one stamp,
and Inkspirational Challenge 57 - word Prompt Bloom.

Feathery Note

I fell in love with this funky feathers set from WMS when I first saw it but as I already owned a set of feathers I hesitated a bit.  However when I saw all the possibilities in the first WMS Pyjama Party I realised I did need it after all.  Yes I had feathers but I didn't have all the beautifully scripted sentiments, plus it helped bump up the order to get free postage (LOL). 

I've used one of the more traditional feathers on this card, because this is for my MIL (the calligrapher) and I wanted a feather which resembled a plume.  The feather panel was first stamped with the WMS Mini Crackle background to give it that aged marble look - antique linen DI and the feather and sentiment were stamped with Versafine Smokey Gray (more of a brown than a grey really).  I couldn't resist the pun on note by including some musical score background as well - Stempel Winkel's Musical Score Background also stamped in Versafine Smokey Gray.  I bought the background paper from La Blanche at Wiesbaden some years ago, it's from the Calambour Postcards Collection.  These were loose 6 x6 sheets for 10c each so I bought quite a few in as many different motifs as possible - they're from Milan Italy.  The Wiesbaden craft fair is coming up soon so hopefully there will be other little gems like this there.

When I had finished I thought it needed a little gold so I sprayed some gold glimmer mist over the finished card - unfortunately this hasn't really showed up very well in the photo because it's not that sunny outside.  Oh well at least it stopped raining long enough to get an outside pic.

Inspiration for this card is Mojo Monday sketch 315 by the very talented Julee Tilman.

Not your typical wedding card!

Not your typical wedding card but then the invitation came by way of tea towel so I've tried to be a bit quirky.  

The tea towel was printed in a light teal colour so I have tried to match it or at least tone in with it.  The top of the tea towel has bunting and announces the names of the intended, while the bottom features a bicycle built for two along with the line of that song.  

Well the bunting was easy, I cut several bunting flags using the Spellbinders Nested Pennants, and spelt out CONGRATS using the Wplus9 Folk Art Alphabet die.

The bicycle built for two was a bit harder.  I have a bike stamp but not one built for two and it's a little small.  In the end I borrowed this Crafty Individuals stamp from my good friend Lena.  It's actually perfect because as ballet dancers for the Australian Ballet the young couple have danced at many of the big cities mentioned in this montage stamp and the postage mark which unfortunately is partially obscured by bunting is from Melbourne - their home town.  Andrew is flying down under tomorrow night for the wedding along with sons #2 and #3.  I'm staying here and making sure son #1 doesn't get up to too much mischief.

I used Mojo Monday's Sketch 301 for inspiration and would you believe missed the deadline again.  Oh well it is a great sketch isn't it.

Accentuating the Negative

Couldn't resist making another card using the negative die cut as an accent.  I needed  another Teacher Thank You Card for end of school year so I pulled out the WPlus9 Folk Art die set again to create this card.

It's rather bright isn't it.  Simon picked the background paper from a freebie paper stack called Totally Tropical by Kate Knight, and I followed this fabulous sketch from Mojo Monday who are celebrating their 300th challenge.  I've been wanting to try this sketch out all week, so glad I got a chance even though I've just scraped in by the skin of my teeth.

Stamps : The Number Game from Technique Tuesday
               CI-258 Uplifting Words from Crafty Individuals
               Opera Tag Stamps from Waltzing Mouse Stamps

Dies : Folk Art Alphabet from WPlus9 
          Opera Tags from Waltzing Mouse Stamps
          LR0106 by Marianne Design
          Spellbinders Circles