​Before I tell you what I did I'll tell you what I shouldn't have done.
We are experiencing some wonderful rain, lots of it and while the temperature has doped to the high 20s the humidity is sitting between 80 and 90 most days so very sticky. I have discovered that when heat embossing you really need to turn your ceiling fan down or off. I think I may have ingested some of it, hope it isn't poisonous.
Second blunder - while putting the sequins on I dropped one that was already glued up and got glue everywhere, in an effort to remove the glue I marked the gloss paper, consequently the strange configuration of sequins is hiding a blunder.
OK so what else did I do...I did the alcohol background first and using the topper under a zip lock bag is brilliant, I didn't want to cover the whole of the topper and this gave me perfect control.
You can find the details of the technique here; https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/r...arkermarbling/
I matched the copic markers up with the colours and then for the two greetings I used the Stampin Up markers and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.
I cut out the Paris die from glitter paper and stuck it on and then lastly added the sequins..sort of wishing I hadn't decided to do that but you win some and then you don't lol
Last but not least I popped some Platinum Pearls Liquid Pearls into the centre of each sequin.
Thanks for looking and have a great week crafting.
Cheers Marg

This is the inside of the card and is the way I finish most of my cards.
​I had done a practice run of the Alcohol Marker technique so was able to cut a strip to create a border.
There are more product details that I used to make this card over in my splitcoaststampers gallery found here; 
​https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2968670?&cat=500&ppuser=198941

This card is for two challenges for this week, the CAS Colour & Sketch challenge shown here; http://cascoloursandsketches.blogspot.com/2020/01/challenge-355-sketch.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CasColoursSketches+%28CAS+Colours+%26amp%3B+Sketches%29 and the Teapot Tuesday Challenge over on Splitcoaststampers.
I often want to submit a card for the CC&S challenges but often miss out because it closes before I have uploaded to my blog, ho hum.
​I am determined to get it in this time just because it was such an effort but I loved the journey.
The Teapot challenge on Splitcoaststampers found here; https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/teapot-tuesdays-f260/mmtpt601-~-january-28-2020-~-do-de-rubber-duck-t632129.html was so much fun and a little daunting.
The rubber ducks and the diving duck were all hand drawn. I already had the background and it was the sketch that got the creative juices flowing. Hope you like it. There is a lot more detail of what I did and what I used over in my splitcoast gallery found here;  https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2967767?&cat=500&ppuser=198941
Cheers Marg 

Today I had our Stampin' Up group with our very own and super creative Katie Kaup over for card making and lunch.
Katie designed four cards for us to create out of the two newest catalogues including the Sale-A-Brations catalogue. 
I'm totally in love with the little Lady Beatles.
​I now have some lovely birthday cards to go into my stash

This card was for this weeks CAS challenge over at Splitcoaststampers found here; https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/clean-simple-cards-f239/cas570-go-gold-1-26-20-a-t632159.html where we were asked to do a card featuring gold as the focal.
I used foiling paste and gold foil for the boarder and heat embossing in gold for the rest. Very simple but quite effective. There are more details over in my Splitcoaststampers gallery found here;​https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=198941

I am going to post some cards I have done over the last month or so all of which can be found in my splitcoaststamper gallery found here; ​https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=198941      
Most of these cards were made in late December or early January.

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