Busy July

July is a really busy month for me with LOTS of birthdays and anniversaries so I'll be busy in the craft room creating lots of cards all month.   I have a couple to share today which are totally random.

This one uses four related products from My Favorite Things which I just adore and know I will be using a lot of all the teenagers in our life.   The background is created using distress inks and the equalizer stencil.  The headphones and MP3 player are die cut from black and grey card and then a sentiment and musical note from keep on rockin' stamp set that co-ordinates with it all.

This anniversary card started with the strip of paper from the new Dots and Stripes Sorbet paper pack from MFT - it's sometimes fun to pick a paper to be your inspiration.   A strip of that behind a white panel topped wit the gorgeous flower from the Lotus set and leaves from Leafy both by Waffle Flower give a focal point - in this instance embossed in white and coloured with inktense pencils.  The sentiment and the teeny-tiny hearts which pull the colour of the paper across the design are from Mama Elephant's Bountiful Blessings.

 NEWS FROM THE STORE

• We've had new releases from Mama Elephant, Reverse Confetti and Newton's Nook this week.
• We've also had massive restocks on Altenew inks and dies as well as some of the out of stock stamps.  They have another new release in a week or 2 so I will attempt to re-order out of stock products then but please note they have very slow turn-around times so I have no idea how long it will take to get them in store. 
• The new release from Neat and Tangled will ship early next week and be with us by next weekend fingers crossed.

A mixed bag

I've got a real mixed bag for projects for you today.  There are so many lovely new products in the store it's hard to work out what to play with!

Firstly - when I saw the Lotus stamp from Waffle Flower crafts, I could immediately imagine fairies frolicking amongst them so I created this little card with it.

The flowers are stamped and embossed in white and coloured with inktense pencils.  The little fairy is not a stamp - I drew her as I couldn't find a stamp to fit my idea.  The dragon flies and sentiments are from the same set.  To brighten it up I added a few splatters using the inktense pencils and then the edge trimmed around the one flower before mounted onto an Avery Elle card base.

Secondly I wanted to play with a new to me but older My Favorite Things stamps - Stirrup Some Fun.  I made this card for a horsey friends birthday - it's the perfect image for her.

This time the colouring is copics with a little pencil detail on the horse.   I die cut the image using a zig zag circle die from MFT which is a really unusual pattern and used the Lawn Fawn stitched borders to add a pattern around the edge.  I tiny Happy Birthday rosette adds a "winning" touch!

Finally here are a couple of cards I shared on my personal blog yesterday to meet a challenge deadline but I thought they would be fun to share here too. 

This uses just two dies from Paper Smooches - Band Aids and Get Well Phrase.  Both of which have been around for a while but they are very useful additions to a craft room.  I arranged my plasters before die cutting the word from the panel and piecing it back in again in red.

This one was for the Less is More challenge I like to play in each week and this week you need a one layer masculine card.  The new stamps from My Favorite Things fit the bill perfectly here.

Split Diagonal stamped in 3 shades of distress inks with deliberate patchiness to add interest to one side over stamped with silhouette balloons from Birthday Wishes and Balloons and a fabby bold statement sentiment from Brushstroke Birthday.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Tara


NEWS FROM THE STORE:

• Mama Elephant have a new release on 15th July and we have already received our stocks so it will be live as soon as it is released stateside.
• Reverse Confetti's release is en-route and should be with us mid-week.
• We have a few more My Favorite Things items coming including so sold out items from the current release which should also be with us mid-week.