The last Tuesday of every month the challenge over on Splitcoast Stampers Teapot challenge is to make a card to be sent to another member of the Teapot team, there is also a theme and this week it is being hosted by Jeannie (Luv2grdn) who said
​"Now that Dare to Get Dirty is over, I’m feeling supercharged to get out of my comfort zone and try combining water-colouring and doodling, which I gleefully am calling ‘Dipsy Doodle’ !
So get out those paint brushes, aqua painters, sponge daubers or any favorite tool of choice to dip into watercolors and loosely paint onto your panel. Once dried, begin doodling with pens or markers. 
Let your fingers do the walking and freehand what ever feels right at the moment; no over thinking it. 
Be it abstract, flora/fauna, alpha/numeric or the first thing that pops into your head, create with wild abandon! "

It sounded intriguing and so I decided to give it ago. I have also linked the card to the CAS challenge for this week to use hearts. It's a long bow but the little hand drawn wild flowers are made up of tiny hearts and the colours for this weeks colour challenge were also used.

I started by spraying the back of some 300 gms rough tooth watercolour paper and then fixing this to one of my sizzix cutting plates with artists masking tape.
I cut the paper slightly larger than needed so that I could tape it them trim it later. 
it is the first time I have used the spraying the back of the paper method and found it perfect for what I was doing. The paper is damp but not over wet which means bleeding and blooming is less likely. 

I chose my colours in keeping with the colour challenge for this week matching the colours to Jo Sonja acrylics, thy are;
Warm White
Aqua
Celadon
Transparent Magenta
Brilliant Violet
I had to mix some Warm White to the Aqua to get the same shade of Coastal Cabana. You can also see the two mop brushes I used the older bamboo one was my mum-in-laws favourite. She would be chuffed to know I'm using her brushes.

I got so carried away with doing the painting I forgot to do progress shots. This photo shows the topper with the flowers done and the doodling with the border still on. The process is very fast and as Jeannie said don't over think it. I had a bit of an idea how I wanted it to look and just splodged the magenta randomly then added the violet leaves. I have a rose bush that has purply brownish green leaves so it is possible lol. 
I then added the grassy background of aqua mixed with warm white and a little of the Celadon to create some depth, finally before doing the doodling I flicked some pearl white for highlights.

Using a detail brush I filled in the little hearts that made up the doodled wild flower border with Jo Sonja's Pearl White and then went over with Smooch Pearlized Top Coat.
I'm also submitting this card for the CAS challenge for this week to use hearts. As I said it's a pretty long bow but there are definitely hearts there ...lots of them. 

Next I repeated the process to create a border for the inside of the card and this time I remembered to take a shot of the painting in progress. As you can see you just slap the paint on and it really doesn't look much until you do the doodling.

Once the panel was dry I cut it to fit the matted piece of SU Gorgeous Grape card stock that would be mounted inside the card base. I added a piece of X-Press It blending paper to the top pf the border, this gives you somewhere to write and this is how I finish the inside of nearly all my cards.
I but the two pieces up against each other and then secure them with some ordinary sticky tape. 

This shot shows the double sided tape and where I place it on the panels.

Here is a shot of the panel finished and in situ.

Finally I put a few random dots of Nuvo Glitter Drops - White Blizzard randomly on the white areas of the card and that's it.
The card was fast to do and came together brilliantly. I really do like how it turned out and had so much fun creating it.
I encourage anyone to have a go, you don't have to send your card to anyone that's just an added extra some of us do in the challenge,  the challenge is found here; 
​https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/teapot-tuesdays-f260/mmtpt579-~-august-27-2019-~-dipsy-doodle-t630175.html
​​

Sabrina aka Cook22 has also put a link up of a Youtube video on freehand watercolour  found here;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=iDbDQZM7-Pk

Resources;
Stamps: 
Hero Art Poly Clear - CL493 Live Life
Paper: 
Mont Mart 300 gms rough tooth watercolour paper
SU A4 208 gms card stock -  Gorgeous Grape & Coastal Cabana
Base = 11 cm x 15 cm
Ink: 
Stewart Superior - Memories India Ink Black
Accessories: 
Pallet 
Mop brushes #4, Flat brush #8, Round #4, Detailer #5/0.
Copic Multi Liner #0.3
Jo Sonja's paints; Warm White, Aqua, Celadon, Transparent Magenta, Brilliant Violet & Pearl White.
Smooch pearlized Top Coat.
Nuvo Glitter Drops - White Blizzard. 
X-Press It High Tack Double Sided Tape. 
SU Stamparatus.

Over on the Splitcoaststampers sight we have a challenge every Tuesday. It's a quirky challenge and leaves a lot to interpretation but one thing that never changes is the desire to bring someone some hope love and joy through the cards we make and to that end each week except the last Tuesday of the month there is someone nominated that is doing it tough for one reason or another as a recipient and we all send our cards to that person. There is a suitable teapot image provided to give inspiration and also a list of things the recipient likes or is interested in and the rest is up to you. The challenge link is below;
https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/teapot-tuesdays-f260/mmtpt578-~-august-20-2019-~-super-hero-t630330.html
Last week (yes I'm running late ...again) the challenge was to send a card to a young man of five who has just completed cancer treatment.
He loves Batman so there have been lots ad lots of Batman cards for him. He will be really surprised when this one turns up in about six weeks. The gallery link is below;
​https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=all&si=MMTPT578&what=keywords

I started by creating the background to the card. I decided to go with the colours from a colour challenge of three weeks ago as I felt this best fitted the theme, those colours being Daffodil Delight A reasonably strong yellow, Flirty Flamingo a strong salmon pink and pacific Point a mid blue.
I wonted to create an explosive dynamic background in keeping with the action spirit of Batman.  

It looks like a lot of ink I have used but in fact it is only a couple of drops plus water to give me enough fluid to draw up with disposable pipettes /droppers.
working with one colour at a time and drying between colours I moved the liquid around the paper with a hand held airbrush pump.

Once I was happy with the coverage I put the panel aside and printed of a clip art image from "prettygrafic" as well as the digital stamp words.
I did create the Finn graphic in keeping with the other words.

I love fussy cutting and have very few dies that cut out images. Instead I have a multitude of border dies and doily dies, mainly Spellbinders and Memory Box. 
Once this was done I put the front panels together matting the topper onto some Daffodil Delight card stock and then mounting that to a card base of Pacific Point.
I glued the Batman image to the front panel then attached the words with some dimensional foam.

The only thing left to do was finish the inside of the card. Normally I create a small panel for the inside of the card when I'm doing the topper panel however I forgot, so out came the inks and droppers again.
I added some white blending card to this panel (some where to write a message) and then mounted this onto some Dafodil Delight card stock and attached this to the inside of the card.

Resources;
Stamps: 
Prettygrafik - digital clip art and stamps
Paper: 
X-Press It Blending Card
SU A4 208 gms card stock -  Daffodil Delight & Pacific Point
Paper Size: 
Base = 11 cm x 15 cm
Ink: 
SU dye re-inkers - Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point & Flirty Flamingo
Stewart Superior - Memories India Ink Black
Accessories: 
SU Stamp'in Write water based markers - Pacific Point, Daffodile Delight & Flirty Flamingo.
Pallet well (for the ink and water) 
Pipettes / droppers.
Tim Holtz Marker Airbrush - hand held (to move the ink around the card) 
Tombo Multi glue, X-Press It High Tack Double Sided Tape. SU Dimensionals.

​Thanks so much for dropping by, I hope I have inspired you. Feel free to use my cards as inspiration but please knowledge me.
You can see more of my cards in my Splitcoaststampers gallery Link below;
 ​https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=198941

After an absence of six months while we had our house completely renovated I have finally unpacked my craft room and made some cards.

I chose to participate in the Split Coast Stampers Mini Virtual Stamp Night where there were three challenges offered with an hour to do each challenge.

​In hindsight I should have had a practice run of my newly laid out craft room with a challenge that didn't have time restraints but I got there in the end.

​The following photos are of the three cards I did with there insides as well.

This is the first challenge card and it was to use the roller marble technique to create a background. Years ago I bought marbles and trays to do this technique when it was first posted on SCS but never did it. When I was packing up the craft room I nearly gave the marbles away but in the end packed them, likewise when I was unpacking a few days ago I thought am I ever going to do this technique but saved them anyway and low and behold up cane this challenge. This card has been designed with a birthday in mind.   

This card is the second challenge and is all about travel snacks and had three photos as inspiration. We try not to eat in the car but the challenge evoked fond memories of Sunday drives where my father would stop and buy us an ice cream in a cone. The card would make a good retirement card or a bon voyage / holiday card. 

Our third and last challenge was to use arrows, again this could be used as a retirement or travel card as well as an encouragement card and has quite a masculine feel to it. I have used a quote from Henry David Thoreau. I love anything this man uttered. 

.....and that's it folks, the details of all these cards can be found in my SCS gallery found here: ​https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=198941

 This card is another card with no challenge connections.......well it didn't start off that way but that's how it's ended up.
About three weeks ago I decided to do the SCS CAS challenge and also one of the colour choices from the five offered for the 700th celebration of SCS Colour Challenge thread.
About the same time I came down with a very nasty and virulent flu like virus that laid low both DH and I and still is. I was going to submit it for the SCS WT702 challenge but missed that too so here it is just to look at.
​
It's a one sheet card that I measured up the borders with a ruler and pencil then stamped the butterflies and masked, then masked the borders with post it notes and artists tape using the pencil lines as a guide.

Once masked I sponged the ink on, fading it out a little towards the top.

When I was happy with the coverage I spritzed the blended panel with my favourite glitter mist made with Perfect Pearls Biscotti and water in a mini mister. I also took the top off the mister and flicked some larger drops onto the panel from the mister tube.

Once this was done I took all the masking off and coloured the butterflies. I heat embossed the greeting and finally added some glitter to the round markings on the butterflies applying some glue from a glue pen, first to the centres and adding some rainbow black glitter then once this was dry added more glue to the outer circles and then diamond glitter.

To finish off I added some white insert paper with little bugs stamped along the bottom and that's basically it.  
Resources;
Stamps: 
SU - Winged Things
Paper: 
X-Press It Blending Card
Linen grain insert paper
Paper Size: 
Base = 11 cm x 15 cm
Ink: 
Versa Mark - Watermark.
SU - Melon Mambo
Stewart Superior - Memories India Ink Black
Accessories: 
Copic Markers; R02, R05, R08, BG10, BG13, BG49, Y15, Y18, Y19.
Stamp It Glitter - Rainbow
Bellbird Papers - 008 Diamond Glitter
Bellbird Paperarts - Super fine clear embossing powder.
ZIG 2 Way Glue - Squeeze & Roll
Post It Notes (for masking)
Home made glimmer mist (small fingernail of Perfect Pearls - Biscotti in a mini mister spray bottle filled with water)

I hope you enjoyed reading about this cute little card as much as I did making it.
Feel free to use the card as inspiration.
​Cheers Marg

This card is a commission card made for a little girl turning seven.
The request was for a unicorn or mermaid card that was predominantly pink, I added some glitter and sparkle because what seven year old does't like glitter and sparkle.
​There are five layers to the card with the greeting banner popped up with some dimensionals.
Resources;
Stamps: 
Clip art image from Google Images
SU - Occasional Quotes
Paper: 
X-Press It Blending Card
DP - Australian Papercraft Essentials - Sweet Wishes Paper Stack & LOTV Nit Wit Collection - Snow Princess 8"x8" Paper Pad
Paper Size: 
Base = 11 cm x 15 cm
Ink: 
Versa Mark - Watermark.
SU - Melon Mambo
Epson bubble jet printer ink - black
Accessories: 
Copic Markers; RV02,RV04, RV09,BG02, BG45, BG49, B0000, B000,BV31, 100.
SU Framelits Dies - Magical Mates
Kraft Korner - Craft Numbers 195459 Pkt 30
Bellbird Papers - 008 Diamond Glitter
Bellbird Paperarts - Super fine clear embossing powder.
ZIG 2 Way Glue - Squeeze & Roll
SU Ribbon Stiched - 1/8" Bermuda Bay 
Portacraft EVA craft foam white
Tombo Multi Glue
X-Press It High Tack Double Sided Tape.
​
I hope you enjoyed reading about this cute little card as much as I did making it.
Feel free to use the card as inspiration.
​Cheers Marg

So what have I been doing since I last posted ..... making cards of course.
The first of our two prize laden annual challenges took place from 4th August to 11th August with those of us that are the Dirty Team hosing the challenges and monitoring the card uploads giving encouragement along the way.
A very busy but rewarding week.
This year I didn't make nearly as meany cards as last year 23 cards this year (see the photo above)
Last year I made 42 cards then went into a creative slump and didn't make cards for four months.
If you are reading this post you have probably seen the two cards I have made since the DTGD challenge, so no slump this year just a nasty virus to contend with at the moment.

Decided to get myself motivated and do a Christmas challenge, I also thought I would use the colours over on the Case Colours & Sketches challenge but missed the upload by a smidge, never mind it gave me inspiration.











​Part of the problem was my camera ran out of battery power just as I was about to take the photos and I discovered we only had three AA batteries left so there was a mad scrabble to fine a fourth battery that would work, hence me missing the CC&S cutoff time, serves my own right for leaving it so late lol, but it's an ill wind that blows no one any good and it got me motivated to add to my Christmas stash.
​

I slapped and then squirted some SU Pool Party and Bermuda Bay onto some baking paper and sprayed it with ironing aid. ​

​I laid the tag into this ink several times until I was happy with the coverage drying between each laying. Last for this section I slapped some Distress Oxide Evergreen Bough down, sprayed it and then laid the tag back into this ink. Once the tag was dry I gave it a light spritz with home made glimmer mist.

I hope you enjoyed reading about this cute little card as much as I did making it.
There are three more very cute penguins in this stamp set along with three more hats of various designs to pop on their heads.
Feel free to use the card as inspiration.
​Cheers Marg

This card is for two challenges, the CAS Colours & Sketches current challenge found here; http://cascoloursandsketches.blogspot.com/2018/06/challenge-276-sketch.html

The Fan Club Christmas challenge over on SCS found here; ​https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/christmas-challenge-f421/june-2018-christmas-challenge-t624564.html, you do need to be a Fan Club member to access the second challenge.

​
​I first created the greeting using two different fonts, one for the capital letters and another for the body of the words.
I then pasted the digi image between the greeting words.

​

​I had the collective image at the top of the A4 card initially and printed it off like this but that was a mistake as I wonted a single layer card, however all was not lost as I decided to mount the digi image as a 3D so used the first print for this and then moved the collective image down to the bottom of the A4 card and printed again.

​Because I had an image it was quite easy to place the gold thread and the ribbon and it was easy to see where both the thread and the ribbon would peep out from the coloured image. 
I attached both the ribbon and the thread with some double sided tape putting the tape down first then just laying the ribbon and thread over it.

​This photo is a bit grainy but shows the digi image before I fussy cut it. Once that was done I mounted the image onto some white craft foam with Tombo Multi glue, let it bond under pressure for about ten minutes then mounted that sandwich onto the card base placing the coloured image directly over the image on the base with the ribbon and thread. 
the only other thing left to do was to add some Nuvo drops to the card to give it a bit of added interest

This card is for the teapot challenge for this week to create a card using a song.

For this card as you can see I have gone with "Paris in the Spring" and like one of my co members of SCS, Sabrina I would be happy to be in Paris any time of the year. We spent three days in Paris at the end of summer in 2014 and all it did was wet my apatite. I loved it, so when we were heading back to the British Isles in 2016 we spent six days in Paris at the very beginning of Spring.

Paris is my favourite city in the whole wide world apart from my home town of Brisbane lol. 

I bought the Paris die at the Paper Craft show last year and that same craft show is this week and I haven't used the die so it was the perfect opportunity.

I'm going to give this card to a friend who has just come back from her first trip overseas at the age of 81 that included Paris.

The card is fairly simple I layered the die image four times with the top layer being cut from some background paper I made with the Slap & Squire technique and I put glitter on the Eiffel Tower part of the die. I mounted the rest of the greeting on some craft foam and that's it.

I know the DP is cherry blossom but it reminded me of Paris and I like the colours. I have also been told that there is cherry blossom near Notre Dame 

​I first laid colour down on some baking paper using the Slap & Squirt technique to create some coloured card stock to cut the top layer die

​The top die cut from the coloured card stock and a plain cut die for sandwiching. I cut four white images with the die to give the final image stability and some height.

​I use aqua adhere as the glue to sandwich each of the die cuts together, the reason being the glue stays wet for quite a few minutes allowing you to move the die cuts around.

I prime the paint brush that I apply the glue with to the die cuts with ordinary washing up detergent and then wipe it off slightly.
This allows easy cleaning of the brush after use.

​I use a pointy nosed pair of tweezers to sandwich the layers together, one layer at a time allowing each layer to dry before starting on the next, about 15 minute between layers.

This image shows the completed sandwich and a view of the tweezers used.

Once the sandwich was completed I brushed some glue over the Eiffel Tower section of the die and sprinkled diamond glitter over it. Diamond glitter is a very fine glass glitter that absolutely sparkles.

I cut two strips of pink glitter paper and butted the strips up against the cherry blossom paper then mounted this onto some soft pink card stock to give it stability.

I embossed some Smoky Slate card stock and then mounted the panel onto this. Finally I glued the die to the front and made the rest of the greeting with my Dymo tag maker and mounted this on some smoky grey and a little craft foam.

I finished the card by putting a strip of the cherry blossom paper on the inside of the card with some white card stock for writing on mounted on some of the soft pink card stock to create a border.

I loved making this card and in reality it didn't take too long.

I hope you enjoyed my description, thanks for looking cheers Marg. 

Spent yesterday, Sunday 3/06/2018 at Stampin' Up demonstrator extraordinaire Katie Kaup's place making cards. Had a great day and will have to say Katie is so generous both with her time and talent and her supplies.
​Thanks so much Katie.