Follow your heart .......

Happy Sunday ......

I know ..... late again! Sorry ....... this moving house lark is playing with my blogging clock!
Normal service will resume shortly ..... I'm going to make a start on my craft room today!!

It's time for this month's Happy Little Stampers ATC Challenge and the theme for February is .....

Hearts

I've got some actual Artist Trading Cards for you today ..... not the wooden block kind like in my last two posts ......

ATC's .... in case you're not familiar with them, are little pieces of artwork, size 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches .... and they are so much fun to make.

This little set started out from a piece of previously coloured cardstock from my stash, coloured with Distress Inks and the smooshing technique ..... I think!
And I've used stamps, and die cuts along with a little heat embossing to decorate the ATC's 

This heart is from Visible Image ...... stamped directly on the ATC in black and heat embossed with clear powder.  I then stamped the heart  again onto white cardstock using a red ink and fussy cut away all the splatters around the edge.
The sentiment was then stamped and heat embossed on the top before layering the heart onto the ATC.

For this one I used a simple die cut heart balloon ..... and coloured it with red ink.  A few splatters of white ink add a bit more interest to the background.

Last but not least ..... a simple red heart stamped in the centre of the ATC (I did use the MISTI to get a nice deep coverage)  I doodled around the edge with a white gel pen and then heat embossed that fab sentiment from STAMPlorations over the top.
To finish off I doodled faux stitching around the ATCs and layered them all onto black cardstock.

As with all the Happy Little Stampers challenges there's a $20 Gift Certificate for the winner, which will be doubled if the winning ATC has been created using HLS stamps.

Happy stamping!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.

Cheerio until next time .....

From the Heart ........

Good morning everyone,

A nice early(ish) post today ....... which probably means it was scheduled!!!!
I'm currently running around like a headless chicken doing what we ladies do best ...... multi-tasking,  doing 10 jobs at once and still managing to get ready for an afternoon out.  It's a good job I've got the house to myself this morning.

It's January 21st which means we have a brand new theme over on the IndigoBlu Challenge Blog.
Before we go into all that though ....... Congratulations go to .....  

 Sheila 

the lucky winner of the mahoosive prize that was on offer for the final challenge of 2013.   Check out the Winners button over on the blog to see Sheila's pretty winning design (she's used one of my favourite stamps .... the lovely Wild Flowers)

It was really nice seeing which of the IndigoBlu stamps have made it onto all of your 'favourite' lists. I don't know about you,  but my favourite changes everytime there's a new set of stamps out!
Enjoy all your goodies Sheila, I'm sure you'll have a few more IndigoBlu favourites very soon.

We've decided this year, as well as the winner,  the DT are going to choose a Top 3 each month to show how much we appreciate all your fab entries.   There's a new 'I Made the Top 3 at IndigoBlu' badge  along with a badge for the winner, which we hope you'll all display proudly on your blogs if you're chosen.
So ..... if you entered the challenge last month, pop over to the Blog and see if you're one of our first Top 3.

The challenge rules are still the same, and as always there's a great prize for the winner so get out your IndigoBlu stash and create something fabulous.

This month's theme is ......

FROM THE HEART

Here's my inspiration piece for you .......

I've gone for the pretty Love is ...... rubber stamp,  a beautiful heart that's full of detail.

The layout of the card is quite a simple design.  I started by cutting some kraft card to the sizes that I wanted (the finished card is approx 8x6), then I used my Distress inks to add a touch of colour around the edges - Tea Dye and one of my current favourites - Aged Mahogany.  I then did my usual trick of flicking water over the inked card, let it sit for a couple of seconds, then mopped up the excess using some kitchen roll.

Next I used the IndigoBlu Script Background stamp to add some detail to both sides of the larger piece of kraft card

I stamped using Versamark ink then added a Fine Detail Embossing Powder.  I also added a few splatters of black ink too for a bit more interest .......

and attached a piece of ivory organza ribbon across the card before any mat and layering.

The heart was also embossed in white then I stamped the two flowers from the centre again onto Kraft card, this time using a red Archival ink.  These were then cut out and attached using hot glue for a bit of dimension.

You can see how detailed the heart is, and because I used a fine detail embossing powder none of it has been missed ...... so pretty.

The sentiment is from the stamp set Grand Tour II and has been stamped using the red Archival again and then cut out using Nestabilities dies

Once everything was put together I finished it all off with an organza bow and a cute little wooden heart button .....

What do you think?  Valentine's card perhaps ....... I think it's definitely 'From the Heart'

If you fancy taking up the challenge, you have until 8pm on February 20th to get your entries in and be in with a chance of winning a fab prize.  I can't wait to see what you all come up with ........ good luck!!

Thanks for popping by.  Enjoy the rest of your day.  I'm off to a craft workshop this afternoon, with the lovely ladies from Ballaugh again.  I'm not teaching this time so I'm looking forward to an afternoon where I can play ...... I hope I've packed everything!

Cheerio for now

LindyLou

xx