CAS Colours & Sketches - #208

January always seems such a long month and here to prove it is the double challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches which only happens when there's a fifth week in the month.

A super simple sketch with some pretty soft colours. Here's my card:

I started by placing a black washi strip across my card and then used a die to create a line of stitching above and below it. Next I stamped and hand cut the flower head using the two peachy colours from the recipe. I stamped the sentiment and butterfly and added some enamel dots and thought I was done....

..... but then I wasn't sure if there was too much black and not enough sage, so I unpicked the flower head and added a strip of sage washi on top of the black. That satisfied me better.

Supplies:
Stamps: HLS, Doodled Flowers, Thinking of You
Inks: SU, tangerine tango, mint macaron, peekaboo peach
Die: MFT Die-namics, basic stitched lines
Embellishments: SU, washi tapes; Simple Stories So Rad enamel dots

Don't be scared of the double challenge - ok you're not! So will I be seeing your card pop up in the CC&S gallery? Let's make that a YES! Not sure where to start? Hop on over to check out the rest of the CC&S DT inspiration cards - here.

I'm so pleased to have had you visit my blog today, you're always very welcome.  And keep crafting!

Uniko Design Team Inspiration

Just popping in today to let you know I'm over on the Uniko blog with an idea which I hope will inspire you.

It's all about CASEing yourself and here's a little peek at what I've been up to:

Hope you'll join me over at Uniko and discover all the details.

Thanks for looking and keep crafting!

Inkspirational Guest Designer

I'm super excited to have you visit my blog today as I'm guesting over at Inkspirational Challenges.

The theme is Polka Dots and here's my card:

I used this gorgeous stamp made up of tiny little dots and indulged my love for all things purple and pink by using a Kaleidacolor ink pad. I die cut a stitched panel and matted it all onto some purple cardstock.

And I have to say I'm totally smitten by the angle and font of the sentiment which is why I highlighted it by the addition of a trio of enamel dots.

Supplies:
Stamps:SU, Blooms & Wishes, Touches of Texture
Inks: Kaleidacolor, berry blaze; Memento, tuxedo black
Dies: MFT Die-namics, double stitched rectangle
Embellishments: MME, Now & Then enamel dots

Thanks so much for your time today. Don't forget to go take a peek at the fabulous DT cards at Inkspirational and be inspired to play along with their fabulous theme. And keep crafting!

Friday Focus

Hi I'm here today with a card for the current Time Out Challenge. I was lucky enough to get picked as an Honourable Mention with this card, so I'm back playing there again this fortnight.

It's a CASE with your own twist challenge - one of my favourite things to do - and the card being CASEd was created by the amazingly talented Ksenija from Sweet Kobylkin.  Here's my card:

I loved the narrow strip down the left hand side and the curved sentiment round the foliage of Ksenija's card and picked up on both for my card.

I also matted my image card onto a larger card, but changed up the colour to red - my CASE twist -  to pick up on the flower colour.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Beautiful Blooms III
Ink: Memento, tuxedo black
Promarkers: marsh green, crimson, cool grey 1
Washi: SU

I'm mega thrilled to have had you visit my blog today, huge thanks for your time.  And keep crafting!

Chasing Mojo with Sweet Kobylkin

Hi I'm here today with a card I made for Ksenijka's Chasing Mojo link up at Sweet Kobylkin.

She had this great idea to get everyone motivated again after the post Christmas card making slump. All you have to do is choose one of the cards offered up to be CASEd and get crafting!

I chose this card by Дарья - here - because I loved it's crisp clean lines, the stitching and the long sentiment at the top.  Here's my take:

I went with a Valentine's themed card and die cut three hearts from patterned paper and stitched them to the base card.

 

I stamped a long sentiment across the top and added a couple of sequins and I was done.

Supplies:
Stamps: Lawn Fawn, Scripty Sayings
Ink: Memento, tuxedo black
Die: Xcut, Homespun Hearts
Paper: Basic Grey, Lemonade

How about you give this mojo challenge a go? The link is open until February 5th, so there's still plenty of time to join in.

Thanks for looking today. And keep crafting! 

CAS Colours & Sketches - #207

This week at CAS Colours & Sketches there's a very interesting and quirky sketch for you to get your crafting teeth into.

Mmm quite challenging! Well it's good to push your creativity from time to time. Here's what I came up with:

I couldn't get the idea of that wavy strip being a landscape hill out of my mind and started my card by handcutting and then embossing a card strip. I placed it down on my card background and then spent some time looking and wondering where to go next.

Well it turned out to be a sunrise at the top and a butterfly and sentiment at the bottom. I kept my colour scheme very simple, just adding a matching coloured trio of enamel dots round the sentiment.

Supplies:
Stamps: SU, Kinda Eclectic
Inks: SU, daffodil delight, pumpkin pie, real red
Punch: Martha Stewart, butterfly
Embossing: Cuttlebug, swiss dots
Embellishments: Simple Stories, So Rad enamel dots

This sketch has got me really excited as I know you're all going to have amazing ideas about how to use it. And so did my CC&S teammies - go check them out here.

Huge thanks for visiting my blog today, I really appreciate your time.  And keep crafting!

AAA Cards - #82 Winter Chill

How's the weather where you are? It's been decidedly chilly here in the UK, but I know from Australian friends it's been exceptionally hot there.

Well whatever your weather - and don't Brits love to chat about the weather - AAA Cards has decided that Winter is definitely cold and would like to see that reflected in your cards.

As we have the amazing Shery from Stamplorations sponsoring us this fortnight I checked out her stamps and came up with this card:

A bit of die cutting, some simple stamping and the addition of enamel dots and a heart and my card was complete and really satisfyingly CAS. Think I may have mentioned before that staying super CAS always makes my heart sing.

Supplies:
Stamps: Stamplorations, Warm Hands Warm Hearts
Ink: SU, night of navy
Dies: Lawn Fawn, large stitched square stackables; MFT Die-namics, peek-a-boo circle windows
Embellishments: SU, enamel heart & dots, dapper denim

You REALLY need to go check out the AAA Cards blog as Shery is bringing a whole new aspect to sponsorship of AAA Cards. Super cool! And as well as Shery playing along we also have a wonderful Guest Designer Katrina joining us too. Then there's all the DT inspiration - just so much fabulousness! Go check it all out here.

Thanks for your time today, I really appreciate you using some of it to look at my blog.  And keep crafting!

Uniko Challenge #39

Here we go today with the first 2017 challenge at Uniko. And that theme that gets you all linking up - Anything Goes - with an optional twist of love.

 

Here's my card:

I definitely went with the love theme - anything goes always scares me, way too open! I die cut a heart stencil and placed it on my card before stamping all over the aperture with my favourite colours and Uniko stamps. Such a cool technique because you're never sure what it will look like until you lift the stencil.

I added a bold sentiment and decided to leave it at that - really pleases my CAS heart when I do this as I find it so easy to get carried away and add unnecessary extras and then wish I'd stopped.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Flower Power #6, All Occasion Sentiments #5, Background Builders Vines
Inks: Memento, tuxedo black, pear tart, rose bud, angel pink, grape jelly, lilac posies
Die: Xcut, homespun heart

You'll probably notice there's a little longer to play this challenge, Bev has decided to only have a challenge every other month to give everyone time to get linked up. She's also ramped up the prizes to reflect this, check them out here.

We have the wonderful Izzy joining us as Guest Designer, go leave her some love here.

Thaks for dropping by today, it's been a pleasure to share some time with you.  And keep crafting!

The Male Room - #52 Washi

A super theme for the next two weeks at The Male Room. And it's got me all excited!

I love washi and can never stop new supplies jumping into my shopping baskets - real or virtual - so this challenge is right up my street. And I've combined it with my other great love - scrapbooking.

I first saw this page layout on Lizzy Hill's wonderful blog - here - and used it for page 21 in my December album - here. I knew I'd want to use it for a full 12x12 page and this challenge gave me the ideal opportunity.

So simple! I started by adding the washi, popped the photo on top, added some stickers and journalled around the edge. And it would be so easy to use this layout for a card too.

Supplies:
Ppaers: Kaiserkraft, Sea Breezes
Stickers: ep, Winter Park; Simple Stories, snow Patrol, Snow Fun & Mistletoe Kisses
Embellishmnets: washi from my stash; Doodlebug Sprinlkles, blue jean asst.

I'll be looking with great interest to see how you all use washi - remember I have a ton to use up so I'm always on the look out for new ways to get it into my crafting. The Male Room DT have some great ideas too, so go check them out here.

Huge thanks for coming to take a peek at my blog, love you for that!  And keep crafting!

CAS Colours & Sketches - #206

A new colour challenge starts at CAS Colours & Sketches today and it's a bright and funky trio.

Here's my card:

I used a Memento close equivalent to the SU ink specified for the stems and bottom flower layer. Then I stamped straight on top with the two pinks. I die cut the image so that it was just falling off the right hand side.

I stamped the sentiment and trimmed the card into a banner and added a heart at the beginning.

Supplies:
Stamps: SU, Touches of Texture; Uniko, sentiment from Simply Said Birthday
Inks: SU, watermelon wonder, flirty flamingo; Memento, teal zeal
Die: MFT Die-namics, double stitched rectangles
Embellishment: SU, enamel heart, flirty flamingo

So what will you do with these colours? Remember CC&S is a CAS (clean and simple) challenge! Please check out the definition on the blog if you're not sure about CAS.

Thanks for your time today, I love having you visit my blog.  And keep crafting!

The Memory Nest - Make It Monday Challenge #80

I'm wearing my scrapbooking hat today and have my DT page for The Memory Nest's new Make It Monday Challenge to share with you. Here's the sketch:

And here's my page. This was so simple and quick to put together using paper and cards from Simple Stories Legacy and Sweater Weather collections. I chose a bright SU patterned paper for the background to lift the colours of the rest of the supplies I used which could have looked a bit sombre otherwise. I added an arrow, a heart and a trio of enamel dots to the first horizontal section.

This will be the opening page in my 2017 album and the message on the journalling card pretty much sums up exactly why I want to scrapbook. How many times have I said if only I'd written it down, taken a photo, listened more carefully ....... so now I do!

All I've done is add a couple of arrows and some enamel dots and a word sticker to the middle section. Oh and that typewriter card is the piece trimmed off from the square card above it - it started out as a standard 6x4 card.

The bottom layer has some textured number stickers, more enamel dots and another arrow.

Supplies:
Papers: Simple Storis, Legacy; , patterned paper
Embellishments: Simple Stories Sweater Weather; MME, Now & Then enamel dots
Numbers: AC thickers, patchwork
Dies: Xcut, arrows

There's a lot of elements to fill on this sketch ad I look forward to seeing how you create with it. Be sure to pop over to The Memory Nest to check out the rest of the DT pages, loads there to inspire you!

Thanks for your time today, I greatly appreciate your visit.  And keep crafting!

Sunday Special

The special today is that I've been picked as the winner over at Time Out with this card here. Hugely delighted!

So of course I've celebrated this achievement by making a card for their current challenge where the theme is Winter with an optional twist of white on white.

I set out with good intentions about keeping to the white on white twist, but then just had to add a wintery aqua sky background. I used the circle die cut from the window, masked off a smaller circle for the moon and then popped the whole thing back into the aperture.

I die cut the tree strip then die cut it again with the window die so that it would sit perfectly without adding too much bulk.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, sentiment from Pure Florals Poinsettia
Inks: Adirondack, pool; Mmento, tuxedo black, grape jelly
Dies: MFT Die-namics, Peek-a-boo circle window; Clearly Besotted, On The Line

Thanks for dropping by today, I really love that you made the time. And keep crafting!

Saturday Slot

I'm back again today with another card made for a Stamplorations Challenge, but this time it's their theme and sketch challenge.

  

Mixed media always has my head swimming, but I've tried hard to keep their definition in mind - definition of mixed media is using stamps and inks + 2 other elements (techniques and/or other products) - and here's my card:

So I've used stamps and inks plus a die cut, a stencil, washi tape and enamel dots, fingers crossed that's got it covered.

Supplies:
Stamps: Stamplorations, Stamp Art Marks, Sunflower, Bold Sentiments; SU, Gorgeous Grunge
Inks: Memento, tuxedo black; SU, cherry cobbler; Adirondack, purple twilight
Stencil: Artplorations, Bubbles
Die: MFT Die-namics, double stitched rectangles
Promarkers: khaki, orchid, amethyst, crimson
Embellishments: washi from my stash; Doodlebug Sprinkles, beetle black asst.

Huge appreciation for your visit today, hope you'll come back soon.  And keep crafting!