CAS Colours & Sketches #109

A fifth Thursday this month so it's double challenge week at CAS Colours & Sketches. 

All those wavy lines had me reaching for my Uniko Studio Background Builders stamp set. I stamped the vines in pear pizzazz, added the bud outline in mossy meadow and filled in with baked brown sugar.

As I didn't have the correct colour for my die cut mat I used some old olive card instead - I think it's not too far away from the given shades.

I coloured a scrap of card with baked brown sugar and then punched two tiny butterflies. I ran my mossy meadow pen round the the edges of the butteflies to add a little definition.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko Studio, Background Builders Vines & A Gift For You
Inks: SU, baked brown sugar, mossy meadow, pear pizzazz
Punch: Martha Stewart, butterflies
Die: Lil'inker, stitched mats rectangles

Hope you have fun with this double challenge - it certainly made me happy!

Thanks for your visit today, so pleased you spent some time with me here. And keep crafting!

Tuesday Talk

Have you seen this week's challenge at Less is More? It's a sketch - and such a CAS one too!

                                              

This sketch is so delightfully simple I wanted my card to reflect this. So I went for an almost all white colour scheme, just a hint of grey and a patch of red.

The image from Digi Stamp Boutique is just the cutest pooch around! I shaded him a little with pale grey and coloured the heart red.

The strip was embossed to add interest and the sentiment is general enough to be suitable for several occasions.

Supplies:
Stamps: Digi Stamp Boutique, Love You Mac; Uniko Studio, sentiment from Flower Power #2
Ink: Memento, tuxedo black
Promarkers: poppy, cool grey 1
Die: Xcut, spiro circle
Embossing: Cuttlebug, Swiss dots

Thanks for dropping by today, your visit is much appreciated. I'll be back on Thursday with the next CAS Colours & Sketches challenge - the double whammy! Hope to see you then. And keep crafting!

CAS Colours & Sketches #108

Time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches and this week it's a sketch.

 

This sketch just said bloke to me and I used it to make a card for my husband's birthday earlier this month. He's always favoured anything blue, so my colour choice was simple and I raided my inks for as many shades as possible.

I started with a die cut rectangle of happy birthday card - purchased from a craft fair, one of those noisy get your bargain here type of stalls. Next I stamped the words and patterns before trimming them into shape. The HAPPY was die cut and embossed and mounted onto pads to add dimenrsion.

Oh and by the way he was pleased and complimentary about his card.

Supplies:
Stamps: SU, gorgeous grunge, Uniko Studio, All Occasion Sentiments #2
Ink: SU, night of navy, pacific point, marina mist; Memento, teal zeal
Die: Spellbinders, Labels Eight; Lil'inker, stitched mats rectangles

Tbanks for dropping by today, your visit is much appreciated. Have fun playing with the sketch!

Tuesday Talk

Hey! Good morning - or whatever time it is for you - and welcome to my blog.

Today I'm sharing a card I made for the current challenge at Less is More where the theme is FRIENDS.

And I couldn't resist these two cuties from The Digi Stamp Boutique. I often have a browse here - and shop - when I'm looking for something more specific than the more general stamps I have in my stash. And they have a bit of a sale on at the moment. And a chance to win a gift voucher. Go check it out!

So once downloaded I sized the image and printed it onto card before colouring with my trusty promarkers and die cutting into a stitched circle. I expect you've noticed my colour choice!

I also sized the sentiment that came with the image and printed it onto card before mounting it onto purple with just two sides accented. The circle was popped onto pads to add dimension.

Supplies:
Stamps: Digi Stamp Boutique, Pip - so special
Promarkers: purple, blush, dusky pink, leaf green, cool grey 1,2,5
Die: Lawn Fawn, stitched party banners

Thanks for dropping by today, your visit is much appreciated. I'll be back on Thursday with a new challenge from CAS Colours & Sketches - a gem of a sketch this week!

Saturday Stuff

Just had to make a card for the current Time Out challenge because it says 'hello' and I'm going to send it to my new One Little Word penpal.

Here's the inspiration photo:

And here's my card:

I stamped the hardwood background twice, once in early espresso and again in potter's clay, then brushed over in toffee crunch to get the mellow in between colour. I then die cut the hello from the hardwood stamped card and used the negative matted onto orangy red card.

It needed to be a fairly flat card as it will be winging its way to the US so I simply added a couple of sprinkles and a flower and circle die cut to finish it off.

Supplies:
Stamps: SU, Hardwood
Inks: SU, early espresso; Memento, potter's clay & toffee crunch
Dies: Clearly Besotted, hello; Cuttlebug, flower
Embellishments: Doodlebug, sprinkles, day to day & blue jean asst.

And as I was speaking of my One Little Word, which is REAL, I thought I'd just share this page I've made for my new grandson's album as it features some of the really important people in my life using digi products from Ali Edwards.

This is the first time I've tried to put photos into a circle and I'm really pleased with how they've turned out. There's a whole load of inspiration using these circular sentiments on Ali's blog - here.

Well that's me done for today, thanks for dropping by. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and keep crafting!

CAS Colours & Sketches #107

So how did you get on with CAS Colours & Sketches challenge last week? I really enjoyed visiting your blogs and seeing what you created.

Are you ready for a new challenge? Well here it is and this week it's a colour challenge.

 

I'm thinking this combo would be good for a Christmas card, but if you're like me and looking forward to making something other than Christmas related then the colours are brilliant for that too.

Here's my take on the colours. I think it's looking quite a sophisticated colour pallette on my card.

I love washi tape and was thrilled to find one in my stash that was a good colour match, so that's where my card began.

I stamped some gorgeous grunge in crumb cake and a sentiment on top. Then I stamped and fussy cut a trio of flower heads and adhered them to the washi strips. A tiny pearl in the centre of each flower just finished them off.

Supplies:

Stamps: Uniko Studio, Flower Power #1 & #2; SU, Gorgeous Grunge

Inks: SU, cherry cobbler, crumb cake; Memento, tuxedo black

Washi tape: from my stash
Embellishments: Hobby House pearls, chocolate heaven

Well that's me done for today. I'm looking forward to seeing what you create with these fab colours.

Thanks for visiting.

Wednesday Words

It's one layer week at Less is More and I do so love the simplicity and crisp clean look of a one layer card. Go check out their DT cards and you'll see just what I mean.

 

Their theme is new beginnings so my card is for a wedding.

I'm always wary of adding bits to a one layer card so stuck to a slick of sparkle using Wink of Stella on the white parts of the large heart and all over the two small hearts.

I love that I got to choose the colours and layout for this card and went with my favourite pink and navy ink pads. I think the poor light has affected the colours in the photos - honestly it really is pink and navy!

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko Studio, Alwasys & Forever, All Occasion Sentiments #5, Flower Power #3; Clearly Besotted, Diagonal Stripes
Inks: SU, melon mambo, night of navy
Embellishments: Wink of Stellaa, clear

Thanks for coming over to look at my blog today, I'm thrilled you took the time.

The Memory Nest - Make It Monday 32

Welcome to my blog on this very exciting day. Today I get to share my first ever page as a member of The Memory Nest's design team. Can't tell you how thrilling this is - to actually be on a DT where I can create scrapbook pages - a dream come true!

Here's the sketch:

Every year I start my new album with a sort of title page, setting out my aspirations for the year ahead. So it seemed very appropriate to use my first ever DT creation for my first page of my 2015 album.

I simply squashed up the two sides of the sketch so that they met in the middle and moved the title down a bit.

Instead of using three layers of paper for each block I stamped a grid for the back layer and used a scrap of camera printed transparency for the second layer. This enabled me to keep a lighter more CAS feel to my page.

The photo was a selfie taken looking into my bathroom mirror with my husband's DSLR camera. I'm very much a novice with this camera, but intend to get to grips with it this year and have already booked a beginner's workshop.

I printed my text on the computer and trimmed it into strips before adhering to a journalling card. I then added sprinkles as bullet points and jazzed up the flowers with buttons, more sprinkles and a stamped fussy cut camera.

Supplies:
Paper: American Crafts, Shimelle Hopper
Journalling card: Simple Stories, I {HEART} SUMMER
Alpha: American Crafts thickers, stroll
Stanps: Kaisercraft, grid; Bo Bunny, Mama-Razzi
Ink: SU, marina mist; Memento, tuxedo black
Embellishments: doodlebug sprinkles, blue jean asst.; buttons from my stash  

This year I'm taking part in Ali Edward's One Little Word class again. This will be my third year and my new word is REAL. Hence the 'get real' in my aspirations. At the moment it's all about making sure I have a reality check before saying YES and then bemoaning the fact that I haven't got time for the things I really want to do. I'm interested to see how this develops and impacts on my decisions over the year.

Part of 'getting real' also feels connected with living and enjoying what I'm doing right now, this moment, instead of constantly thinking about what comes next. And of course as a blogger and scrapbooker I've got to tell the story!

Thank you for visiting my blog today, hope you enjoyed looking and will pop over to The Memory Nest to check out the other DT creations. And if card making is more your sort of thing it's perfectly ok to use the sketch for this instead. Hope to see you there!

Sunday Slot

Seems absolutely ages since I've made a card to enter a challenge, so when I saw The Card Concept's beautiful inspiration photo for their one year anniversary I knew it was time to put this right.

I love all the pinks in the photo and picked up on the stripes, roses, ribbon and the little hint of greenery. The sentiment had to be congratulations as it's such an achievement to be one year old on the busy challenge blog scene.

The flowers are a two stage stamp and I fussy cut them and mounted the smallest one onto pads. I'm loving how the colour of the punched leaves just lifts and showcases the pinks.

Supplies:
Stanps: Clearly Besotted, Bridal Bouquet; Uniko Studio, sentiment from Sweet Baby
Inks: Memento, angel pink, rose bud
Die: Clearly Besotted, Bracket Edges
Punch: Woodware, large grass 1
Embellishments: paper scraps & twine from my stash

I'm thinking my card fits into The Card Concept's 'clean and layered' style - always find it so hard to define a card style. 

Thank you for spending some of your time looking at my blog today, it's much appreciated.

CAS Colours & Sketches #106

A special day for me today. It's my debut as part of the DT for Cas Colours & Sketches! I'm so thrilled about this, I think I've been a fan of their challenges ever since I started blogging.

So this week it's a sketch and here it is:

I knew I'd got a stamp that was that banner shape and that's where I started. Next I stamped the rose - a three stage stamp using three colours. I added the stem and felt this sort of echoed the oval from the sketch.

The final touches were the sentiment and the trio of pearls. I'm feeling quite pleased with my finished card and hope it inspires you to create today.

Supplies:
Stamps: Clearly Besotted, Sweet Rose, Journal It
Inks: SU, daffodil delight, calypso coral, melon mambo, old olive; Memento, tuxedo black
Embellishments: Papermania, adhesive pearls

Thank you so much for spending time at my blog. Hope you'll use the sketch and join in at CAS Colours & Sketches, looking forward to visiting your blogs.

Thursday Thoughts

And so a New Year begins! My wishes for a peaceful and contented 2015 are sent to everyone.

The last of my December Daily pages to share today. I've so enjoyed creating this album and it's seemed much more logical and relevant to me this year. I think it helped enormously to have prepared all the journal cards and embellishments well in advance and I've just loved using all the digital products for the photo pages, so quick and easy when time is at a premium.

Day 26 - And almost a white Christmas!

Loving the big snow blobs on this photo, reminds me just how heavy the snowfall was for a little while. Shame it was late at night after the kids had gone to bed.

Day 27 - One of the many board games played over Christmas. Love all the banter and interaction that happens while playing!

I stood up on my chair to get this shot from above, a little blurred I know, but I couldn't actually see what I was taking until I'd climbed down - too old/lazy to redo it! And have you ever tried to get two boys to stay still while playing?!!

Day 28 - Murray came to visit wearing his new red collar - his Christmas present from his master & mistress and his Christmas bowtie - a present from me.

Such a handsome chap!

Day 29 - The part of Christmas that leaves my house unbearably quiet and empty.

All packed up and checking the sailing times. Someone's not a bit camera shy!

Day 30 - A really poor choice of something to do to fill my time, but I suppose it stopped me brooding.

And here they are:

Day 31 - Time to close down my album and think about the best bits - not easy to choose, it's been a good one this year!

And my two daughters in law making an appearance.  The pocket was inspired by Deb - here and the tags by Mandy - here.

And just before I put my album to bed a couple of shots of it all completed.

And my last link up with Let's December Daily. So much inspiration and friendship from their DT - sending a huge thank you and looking forward to seeing you all again next Christmas.

Thanks so much for looking at my blog today, your visit is much appreciated. I'll be back soon with my first card as a DT member for CAS Colours & Sketches on Thursday 8th and my first scrapbook page as a DT member for The Memory Nest on Monday 12th.  Best get crafting then!