Sunshine and strawberry cheesecake in a box

This week I have had the dilema of creating a gift for a friend who has six children!

I didn't want to take the easy route of turning the photos to black and white so I enhanced them all with Picnik (a photo editing free programme).  This gave them all the same tones.

I made a photo cube from an old kit but you could easily copy it by cutting 6- 5x5 inch squares and punching 2 small holes in each corner for threading through. Make sure you pull your string or ribbon really tight inside the box.

I simply covered it with some of the Basic Grey SALE papers from Happy Daze and let their vibrant colours do all the talking. A few stickers, Prima flowers and jewel centres as minimal embellishments.

Quick, cheap and easy.....perfect for a recession at 45p per 12x12 sheet and you can't beat that personal touch.

Ruth x

The Sky is the Limit By Paula Tidman

My Little Black Dress is definitely stamping. I have stamped on paper and wood and this time I decided to  stamp on fabric. I frayed a piece of cream cotton then painted with white gesso to make it easier to stamp on. I used  the Artistic Outpost Bluebird stamp plate which is so pretty. I used a combination of distress inks and watercolours to paint the image. I mounted the stamped fabric onto a piece of thick card that I covered in some paper from my stash, die cut an edge and added some lace an pearls to finish.

There is still time to enter The Happy Daze Little Black Dress Challenge. You have until Midnight on 30th September when one winner will be drawn at random to win a  £15 voucher and free P&P to spend in the Happy Daze shop. Maximum of 3 entries per person & you must use at least one product which can be purchased in the Happy Daze shop.

• You can enter by blogging you address to the linky widget here, 
• emailing your picture to info@happy-daze.net
• uploading your photo to their facebook page

splashy dragonfly card by Joanne Wardle

This as a really simple card I made with Jo's new Dragonfly stamp (again) from stampotique. I created the simple background by doing a very small spray of adirondack sprays in 3 colours. I then used the same blue spray with a paintbrush to colour the dragonfly.

Butterfly Notebook By Carol Fox

A lovely quick and easy little project, using one of the Artistic Outpost set of stamps, Happiness, which can be found here in the shop.

I have coloured the background using distress inks and then over stamped it using the same colour ink and a background stamp. The Large Butterfly is from a very old collage sheet I have. The quote has been stamped in Jet Black Ranger ink and then I have used glossy accents to highlight some of the words. I stamped a large swirl as a filler on the bottom corner and then filled in any gaps with the Butterflys from the stamp sheet.

I have made my pad using a couple of bits of mount board and my Zutter, but this works just as well using a pre brought pad.

There is also plenty of time to enter into the challenge this month which is to use your favourite crafting item or technique on a project. Full details of how to enter can be found HERE on the blog.

Little Black Dress - London Underground Stamps by Gillian Simson

This month the DT have been showing you their "Little Black Dress" artwork whether it be a technique, product or tool. My little black dress must have has to be Stamps. One of my many favourite stamp sets is London Underground by Artistic Outpost. Of course any black dress needs accessories, so for mine, I have chosen Distress Stains,  Ideaology embellishments and a Wooden Arch

The arch was coloured using Weathered Wood & Faded Jeans, the stamps wered inked using Archival Ink (Jet Black) along with Distress Stains (Fired Brick & Faded Jeans).

• Blog your entry and use the Linky widget below to link to your blog entry HERE
• Load to the Happy Daze Facebook Page
• Sent a pic by email to info@happy-daze.net

My Pretty Little Black Dress By Ruth Philips

My little black dress must have is PAPER.....preferably patterned, sometimes textured, but always BEAUTIFUL!!

I have used My Minds Eye Portobello Road paper for this layout as it has all of those must have magical qualities about it.

A quality feel (a must have for paper strokers), intricate details and a splash of bling!! 

(click on the photo for better details)

Just like a LBD all it needed was a few accessories from my favourite manufacturer of flowers and butterflies

Prima Marketing Inc and a touch of second hand vintage.

If you would like to enter this months challenge please click HERE for details.

Ruth x

Pearly Queen By Paula Tidman

My sister has lived in the US for quite a few years now, and I know she still misses Blighty so I thought these fab Artistic Outpost Loverly London stamps were just the job for this folded card for her birthday, there is a good mix of images and text in this set. (see my blog for the tutorial link) The background paper is made by haphazardly applying watered down distress inks with a paint brush and stamping lightly with archival ink to achieve a faded effect. The pearly queen was coloured with watercolours and distress inks and of course a pearl necklace.

A triangular pocket was added to the inside of the card to store the bookmark. More images were stamped firstly onto the pocket embellishment and then onto the book mark (he looks very dapper don't you think?) which was then sealed with Ranger glue n' seal and finally a red tassel to complete.