It's All About Love

That's the theme for Rainbow Lady's challenge for this week....perhaps she expected lots of Valentine cards but since my poor DH didn't get one this year (come to think of it, neither did I!) I'm offering something different. We have four couples among our friends who are celebrating their Golden Wedding in the next 12 months so this was a good opportunity to start the special cards. First came the choice of a cream card base rather than white. Then I went through my folders and pulled out all the suitable cream & gold background papers, deciding to use another of the handmade Indian sheets which I have in abundance. The hybrid rose is a PSX stamop I've had for years and used many times, even painting it with watercolours on one occasion (and for me that was a huge adventure). This time I embossed it with Versamark ink and gold detail powder but was very disappointed with the result: no raised lines at all, and no shine.....if asked I think a viewer would decide it was a gold picture because it couldn't be anything else, but it certainly wasn't what I wanted. So I did it again using my very old ordinary gold EP and got the right effect this time. The matte gold card was a couple of bits from my scraps box, the gold peel offs added the finishing touch and that was it: an hour's work, one GW card down and an entry for Cynthia's challenge :)

ATCs for a couple of challenges

I hoped to make such a lot of cards today but in the end all I have completed are 4 ATCs, two each of two designs. They are destined for a swap session at a big craft show in London in April but meanwhile the peacock is my entry for Rainbow Lady's latest challenge Fur and/or Feathers. It was difficult to achieve a clear scan because the panel at the side is a child's wooden picture domino, painted with acrylics and stamped using Ranger archival ink. Both stamps are by The Artistic Stamper.

Carmen is for the Music themed challenge on the Circle of Crafters. Not a scrap of music to be seen.....but being an opera lover myself (who sang in an amateur production of Carmen many years ago) I think she fits the bill very well. The red is a satin finish paper, again stamped with Ranger archival ink; the stamp is by Inkadinkado and the lettering is Curlz font by JustRite Stampers. The backing is gold mirror card, and we all know how difficult that is to scan.

Teatime Challenge

This is my first entry in Rainbow Lady's Challenge which this week is 'Teatime'. I love the sentiment on the card, which will be sent to a fellow member of Weight Watchers ...... well, it's good to be optimistic!

Cakes by Impression Obsession, words by Stampendous, Nestability dies by Spellbinder