The Play Date Cafe - Guest Designer

I am so excited that this week I get to be the guest designer for The Play Date Cafe!! I know! Added to which is the fabulous colour story this week. I was bouncing up and down on my chair when I got to see those delicious colours and fab concentric circles. Talking of the latter, I immediately thought of the sunshine impression plate from Papertrey Ink. Then I was flooded with ideas as to how to use the colour aspect of the inspiration. I had piles of colourful circles cut out of matching card and played around with them - one moment they were a simplistic tree, the next a cute circular guy with googly eyes and then finally I settled on a cascade of circles set to different levels with dimensional adhesive and a few buttons and twine thrown in for good measure!

Finally I picked out a simple sentiment which I felt suited the graphic feel to this card.

The sponsor for this weeks challenge is Echo Park Paper Co.

Please be sure to check out the prize and all contest details at The Play Date Cafe - the deadline is Tuesday, July 5 2011 at 11.59 pm EST. I'd be delighted if you'd play along.

Finally I'd like to thank everyone at The Play Date Cafe for inviting me along - I've loved the opportunity to guest design today.

Debby

Supplies:

Stamps - PTI life

Inks - Versafine onyx black

Card - PTI harvest gold, summer sunrise, terracotta tile, SU basic black, tempting turquoise

PTI sunshine impression plate

Divine twine

Buttons

Penny Black Guest Designer

I was delighted when the lovely Jenyfur from Penny Black asked me to Guest Design on their blog for the next two weeks. Of course I said yes!

So here is the first installment of my Penny Black projects. Keeping to my clean and simple style roots. I chose a lovely stem image which reminds me of cow parsley here in the UK. I highlighted the delicate little flowers with glitter and then paired the cow parsley with a friendship sentiment and mounted it all on a piece of rich green from a set of Penny Black cardstock trios.

I made a little gift card holder to match, masking off part of the sentiment and tying it all together with some ribbon and twine.

The cow parsley image is so fine and delicate and stamps beautifully and the glittery blooms are so sweet.

I added a piece of polka dot paper to the inside of the gift card holder to tie in the red colour.

This next card is my favourite of the bunch. I stamped the flower image with Versamark on to vellum and white embossed it before colouring it with distress inks. This is my first time trying this technique and I loved how rich and vibrant the colours are.

I loosely attached the flower to a white panel double mounted onto more of that lovely rich and vibrant green cardstock trio. Wrapped some twine and added a little sentiment tag.

I'd like to thank both Jenyfur and Penny Black for the opportunity to Guest Design on the Penny Black Blog. Watch out for my post next week with more Penny Black projects.

Debby

Supplies:

Friendship card and gift card holder:

·         Penny Black 4176H friendship

·         Penny Black 30-073 touch of whimsy

·         Penny Black cardstock trio #05 fern green

·         Versafine Spanish moss

·         Versafine habanero

·         Versafine onyx black

·         Papertrey Ink mat stack 4 die

·         Papertrey Ink seed packet die

·         Papertrey Ink pure poppy ribbon

·         Divine twine

·         Prisma glitter

·         Adhesive stones

Hello card:

·         Penny Black 4160K cheerful

·         Penny Black brush stroke alphabet lower case and punctuation

·         Penny Black cardstock trio #05 fern green

·         Versamark Ink

·         White embossing powder

·         Papertrey Ink vellum

·         Distress Inks – peeled paint, barn door

·         Prisma glitter

·         Spellbinders label 14 die

·         Stampin Up twine

The last of the critters and a blog holiday

Yes, today is the last of the children's parties I need to get ready for before the summer break. So another Cricut critter card and tag was in order. The little girl in question loves the jellyfish from the set, so using Laurie's card here as inspiration I made these.

The jelly fish is attached to the inside of the card and is seen through a circular window in the card front. Then there's some cute googly eyes as usual, a bit of glitter and some gems to bling it all up a bit.

And a matching tag.

Well, as we teeter on the edge of our summer holidays (summer except it's pouring with rain at the moment!) I am finding it difficult to blog. Time just isn't complying. So if posts are infrequent for the next few weeks it's just that I'm taking a little time to chill with the kids and we will be travelling some too. I do have a couple of scheduled posts but not as many as I would like, but hey I'm OK with that - I will be back soon, refreshed and hopefully inspired.

Debby

Supplies:

Card - SU elegant eggplant, blushing bride
Paper - SU subtles paper pad
Cricut create a critter cartridge
Dies - Spellbinders circles, scalloped circles, PTI tag sale 3
PTI sweet blush ribbon
Divine twine
Ribbon girl button
Stickles glitter glue
Adhesive stones

For Your Inspiration #8

I'm not sure where the time is going at the moment! I suppose the end of term is a busy time with concerts, sports days and final to do lists before we break up. I've not even had the time to photograph some of the things I've been making and giving out as end of year thank you gifts! Although due to a lack of time there have been a lot of gift cards in little seed packet holders similar to these. However, today I do get to show you something as it's time for the next installment of fun from For Your Inspiration! 

When I first saw this photograph I was drawn to so many aspects of the image. The texture of the cliffs, the flow of the water and the shapes of the foreground rocks. I thought of the water flowing over the pattern of moss covered rocks as I made this card.

I used the circle image from Papertrey Ink's grunge me set to represent the rocks and tried to give the impression of them flowing across the page.

A simple popped up sentiment and bingo a card for my husband to give to his Dad on Father's Day (19 June in the UK).

Have a look at the other designers great ideas for this fab photo:

• Debbie
• Keva
• Sara
• Steph
• Valerie
• Wanda

And then why not join in the fun with us!

Debby

Supplies:

Stamps - PTI grunge me, trajan monogram
Inks - American Crafts leaf, Versafine spanish moss, Versacolor polar blue
Card - PTI ripe avocado, ocean tides
Dies - PTI skater dude

Gift card holders

Today, it was the turn of the running club volunteers to receive a little thank you from us for all the time and effort they give to the club.

Within my latest Papertrey Ink order was the new seed packet die, the size of which proved perfect for a gift card to our local watering hole/coffee stop.

I used a computer generated sentiment with a bit of twine to finish it off. A simple gift but well received.

Debby

Supplies:

Paper - My Mind's Eye lime twist
Card - PTI rustic white, simply chartreuse
Dies - PTI seed packet die, Spellbinders label 14
Divine twine

Busy, busy, busy

It's certainly busy here with lots of children's parties up and coming - squeezed in before the end of term and everyone disappears on holiday. I thought I'd share some more of the tags and cards that I have been making in preparation. My daughter has a horse mad friend, so I have a few horsey gifts on order that I'm waiting to arrive. In the meantime here's the card and the tag for the gifts.

I do so love the Create a Critter cartridge from Cricut for children's cards. The critters are so cute and make a big impact. My kids love them.

I made this card the other day and now here is the matching tag on the gift wrapped present.

And the present and card together. Just got to get my son to write on the card when he comes home from school!

Two parties prepared for, one more to go!

Debby

Supplies:

Horse
Stamps - PTI fillable frames 1
Inks - SU early espresso
Card - SU early espresso, soft suede, crumb cake, blushing bride
Paper - SU, Craft Creations
Dies - PTI tag sale 3
Ribbon - SU pear pizzazz
Prisma glitter
SU twine
Cricut create a critter

Butterfly
Stamps - PTI big birthday wishes
Inks - PTI berry sorbet, Versacolor bamboo
Card - PTI sweet blush, berry sorbet, spring moss
Cricut creat a critter
Divine twine
Prisma glitter
Adhesive stones

Thank you tags

Well it's that time of the year - the time to say thank you to those that volunteer their time to run after school activities. Today is our time to say thank you to my daughter's Brownie leaders. Thank you and goodbye as it turns out because after the summer she will be too old for Brownies and will be moving on to Guides. So it was with a lump in my throat that I packaged up little thank yous for the 3 people who do such a fabulous job of making Brownies fun for a young girl. Our two fabulous adult leaders (Brown Owl and Tawny Owl) and our Guide helper (Cuckoo Owl - her choice of name and it suits her fun personality!).

I whipped up some owl tags to adorn the gifts - a tag recipe I've used often but still love! A combination of dies and stamps using the Brownie colours of the UK - yellow, brown and blue.

There will no doubt be more thank you posts to come in the next week or so as we approach the end of term. Our time is busy with the last of the activities, sports days, music performances and such as we rush at an amazing speed towards the summer holidays.

Debby

Supplies:

Stamps - PTI tiny treats valentine, tiny treats birthday, round and round
Inks - SU early espresso, Memento tuxedo black, Versacolor canary
Card - SU bashful blue, early espresso
Ribbon - PTI lemon tart
Dies - PTI tag sale 3, mat stack 5, Spellbinders circles, scallops
SU twine
Copics - E44, E55, YR16, R24, T0

Pink cuteness

Hi, popping in for a very quick post to share a little bit of pink cuteness I made up the other day. I love the tiny treats line by Papertrey Ink and just wanted to ink this little elephant up!

The weather here has turned glorious today, so I'm going to make the most of it! Off to cut the lawn! Hope you are enjoying the end of the week and have a lovely weekend to look forward to.

Debby

Supplies:

Stamps - PTI tiny treats birthday,
Inks - Versafine smoky gray, American Crafts blush
Card - PTI sweet blush
Dies - PTI tag sale 3, mat stack 5
Ribbon - PTI sweet blush
Divine twine

For Your Inspiration #7

Wohoo, it's time for the next installment from For Your Inspiration! When I saw that amazing sky I attempted to use a brayer and inks to recreate a graduated colour change from purple through orange to red. However, you know what, I don't think I'm made for getting messy with inks! My CAS side just says NO! So here's my version.

I took the silhouetted coastline with it's bright shining light and transferred them as leaves and a bright yellow button.

I just love these colours together! Pop on over to FYI and join in the fun!

Debby

Supplies:

Stamps - Waltzingmouse Stamps frame it
Inks - Versafine onyx black
Card - SU rich razzleberry, pumpkin pie, real red
Die - Sizzix branch with leaves
Button - Ribbon Girl

Totally Hues # 7

While I had my Cricut out for this card, I also put this totally blingy (is there such a word? if not there should be!) butterfly together using the colours from Totally Hues #7.

There are a lot of birthday parties coming up here and I don't think there are many little girls who can resist a pink sparkly butterfly!

Oh and the weather here is soooo dull and grey and I am having a terrible time trying to get photos. Where has summer disappeared to?

Debby

Supplies:
Stamps - PTI big birthday wishes
Inks - PTI berry sorbet, Versacolor bamboo
Card - PTI sweet blush, berry sorbet, spring moss
Cricut creat a critter
Divine twine
Prisma glitter
Adhesive stones

Slow down

Today I thought it was high time I got my Cricut out. So working with the colours for this weeks CR84FN challenge I broke out my favourite Create a Critter cartridge and popped this cute guy together.

I recently got the PTI set Pond Life and the sentiments that go with it and I've had the pairing of this cutie and the sentiment in my head ever since!

Debby

Supplies:
Stamps - PTI pond life sentiments
Inks - SU early espresso
Card - SU crumb cake, barely banana, bashful blue
Paper - SU
Die - PTI scallop
Cricut create a critter
Divine twine
Diamond stickles