Friday Focus

I've had a bit of inky time to create a tag for the STAMPlorations NovemberTheme & Sketch Challenge.

 

I've very loosely used the sketch but whole heartedly embraced the stamps and tags.

I started by die cutting the tag and then adding the sunflower and words.  I then used a stencil to ink up some circles to represent the diamonds from the sketch. And I almost stopped there.

But having walked away from the tag for a while I came back and added the splodges and circle stamps, some more ink and also worked on the edges in black.  I coloured the flower and added some nuvo drops and enamel dots. Quite a bit more then!

upplies:
Stamps: STAMPlorations, Sunflower, Imagine, Art Marks
Inks: Memento, tuxedo black; Ranger distress oxide, fossilized amber, picked raspberry; Ranger distress, black soot
Die: MFT Die-namics, stitched traditional tags
Stencil: ARTplorations, Bubbles
Pens: Copic, R22, R24, R29
Embellishmsnts: Nuvo drops, ebony black; Doodlebug Sprinkles, love asst; SU enamel shapes, peekeaboo peach; ribbon from my stash

Thanks so much for dropping by today, I've really enjoyed your company.  And keep crafting!

Thursday Thoughts

Today I'm sharing the card I made as part of Ksenija's Chasing Holiday Mojo challenge.

I was completely bowled over and totally in love with Anita's card from the moment I first saw it, so  there was never any doubt in my mind that I would choose it to CASE. Here's her card:

Feeling very daunted by my choice I set about creating my card. And here it is:

And I'm thinking I need to CASE Anita's photography composition too! I picked up on her bauble off the side and changed it up into a tag.  I also used some of the colours too.

I punched a hole in the top of the tag and then carefully cut a slit with my craft knife so that I could thread the twine through.  I also added a stripe of pale grey down the side of the tag to give a bit of a 3D look.

Supplies:
Stamps: Clearly Besotted, Little Donkey
Inks: Memento, tuxedo black; Ranger distress oxide, seedless preserves, faded jeans
Pens: Copic, N1, E55, E57
Die: MFT Die-namics, stitched traditional tags
Embellishments: Wink of Stella, silver on the star

Thanks so much for looking today, I really appreciate it.  And keep crafting!

STAMPlorations Giving Thanks Blog Hop

Hi! I'm so pleased you dropped by today as I'm taking part, with my AAA Cards hat on, in the STAMPlorations 3rd Giving Thanks Blog Hop.  How exciting is that?

Well this was a no brainer when I got the invitation from Shery and just look at the wonderful stamps she sent through for me to use. So a huge thanks goes from me to Shery and STAMPlorations!

  

Here's what I created using them:

Although this is not my usual style I just couldn't resist making a pop up box with the scarecrow, leaves and pumpkins. So much fun colouring and putting this together!

Supplies:
Stamps: STAMPlorations, Wonderfall Time, Typografia Thankful
Ink: Mememnto, rich cocoa
Pens: Copic, R20, R22, R24, R29, E000, Y13, Y18, E55, E59, YG13, YG17

After all that fussy cutting and layering I went straight back to my preferred and AAA Cards required CAS style. This card has loads of empty 'white' space!

I love the colours that I blended together on the masked off strip - pinch me I'm saying I love orange! And I so enjoyed colouring the pair of pumpkins and tried hard to achieve an orange glow even though I don't have any orange pens - pen blending was needed!

 
Supplies:
Stamps: STAMPlorations, Wonderfall Time
Inks: Memento, rich cocoa; Ranger distress, spiced marmalade, mustard seed
Pens: Copic, Y13, R22, R24, E55, E57

My final card is a sort of half way house between the first two creations - a little more in the way of layers, but still enough empty 'white' space to call it CAS.

I started by using a homemade stencil to ink up that circular frame for the scarecrow - had to use him again as he's so cute. Then I added a couple of wonky strips of coloured cardstock to ground him. The pumpkins were then added to the front layer using pads for added dimension.

 
Supplies:
Stamps: STAMPlorations, Wonderfall Time
Inks: Mememnto, rich cocoa; SU, pumpkin pie, soft sky
Pens: Copic, R20, R22, R24, R29, Y13, Y18, G99, E57, YG13, YG17

Well that's my shares completed for today. Both the stamp sets I used are available in the STAMPlorations store - HERE - as well as all the other special release sets for this blog hop that you'll have seen as you've been hopping around.

And of course there are prizes to be won. Here's the details:

Prizes for commenting on the STAMPlorations blog and participating designers blogs:

• THREE (3) winners randomly drawn from all comments left on the STAMPlorations blog and participating designers blog will each receive a $25 certificate to the STAMPlorations store

Prize for liking, commenting, tagging a friend, and sharing our post on the STAMPlorations Facebook page post:

• ONE (1) randomly drawn winner will receive a grab bag consisting of new products (valued at $25 MSRP) + another grab bag of the same value to the person he/she tags

Prizes for linking up to the STAMPlorations Wishlist Linky Party:

• TWO (2) randomly drawn winners will each receive products in their wishlist (up to $40 MSRP)

Prize for commenting and re-posting our Giving Thanks Blog Hop and Wishlist Linky Party post on the STAMPlorations Instagram page:

• ONE (1) randomly drawn commenter will win her choice of Giving Thanks stamps (Thankful & Blessed; Wonderfall Time; Words of Gratitude; OR any 2 Typografia Gratitude stamps)

Commenting on the blogs and linking up to the Wishlist Linky party ends on November 30 at 11:55 p.m. Pacific

Winners will be announced on December 10 in the November Challenges and Hops winners post. Winners have until December 31 to claim their prize.

And just look at this:

 

All that's left for me to do is say a huge thanks to you for visiting my blog today and leave you with the blog hop links so you can continue your journey.

And keep crafting!

Tuesday Talk

I'm back in scrapbooking mode again today and I'm entering this page into a new to me challenge at Scrap the Boys. And with all my boys this seems like the perfect challenge blog for me and I'm delighted to have found it.

 

 

The challenge for November is to use this mood board:

And this my page:

I fell in love with this photo as soon as my son sent it to me - my little grandson looking very pleased with himself for discovering hot chocolate!

And as his pyjamas had stars on I decided to use them as the basis for my page. So I started with the base paper in the orange from the mood board and then added the diagonal top and bottom starry strips. Next I stamped some stars down the right hand side and matted up the photo using the green and black from the mood board.

Finally I added a note pad and some die cut stars using the beige mood board colour and finished off the whole page with a title, enamel shapes, die cuts and word stickers.

Supplies:
Papers: Bazzill Basics cardstock; Kaisercraft, A Touch of Gold; ep, Times & Seasons
Stamps: Uniko, Background Builders Seeing Stars 
Ink: SU, baked brown sugar 
Punch: ek, notepad top
Dies: Xcut, stars; MFT Die-namics, cute cameras & ampersand
Alphas & stickers: Frcled Fawn; Simple Stories, I Am
Embellishments: SU enamel shapes 

Well I'm so pleased you found my blog today, huge thanks for your time.  And keep crafting!

Monday Moments

I'm back from the fabulous HLS Craft Retreat and full of lots of new ideas to try out.

 But first I've a card to share that I half made before leaving for the retreat  - I'd packed my trimmer and inks so I couldn't add the finishing touches.  So I finished it off this morning once I'd got my craft room under control again!

It uses the MFT sketch and I'm just getting it entered in the nick of time!

Here it is:

I used a homemade stencil to create the circular background and then stamped the reindeer straight on top. Next I stamped the reindeer again onto a piece of scrap card and coloured him to match the tartan paper colours. I hand cut him, cutting straight throught the antlers - too fiddly -  and popped him up on pads on top of the previously stamped reindeer so that the antlers were showing.

Supplies:
Stamps: Clearly Besotted, Let's Prance
Inks: Ranger distress, stormy sky, chipped sapphire, milled lavender; Memento, tuxedo black
Die: MFT Die-namics, Merry Christmas
Pens: Copics, V12, V15, E51, E55

Thanks so much for looking today, I really appreciate you taking the time.  And keep crafting!

AAA Cards - Challenge #103 Celebrate

As we inch our way - or should I say gallop our way - ever closer to Christmas the new challenge at AAA Cards might just help you increase your Christmas card stash.  Or if it's already bulging then there are are so many other occasions that would fit the theme of CELEBRATE.

I went for a fairly generic card that could be used at any time of the year:

I kept it all nice and simple using die cuts and patterned paper as the main elements and just finished it off with a couple of extra stamped sentiment words.

Supplies:
Stamps: HLS, Bold Birthday Sentiments (retired)
Dies: MFT Die-namics, peek-a-boo circle window, celebrate
Paper: SU

So what will you be celebrating in the near future? Maybe the AAA Cards DT can help you out by giving you some excellent CAS card ideas to inspire you whatever your celebration is. Check them all out HERE.

I'm celebrating your visit to my blog today - always makes me happy to see that folks have dropped by and some have even taken the time to leave lovely comments. Thanks so much!

And keep crafting!

Uniko November Revisit Blog Hop

Welcome to my blog today where I'm sharing some projects made with Uniko stamp sets that are part of the November Revisit and Blog Hop.

Here's all the products in the revisit:

  

 

First up is something very different for me - an exploding box of flowers.

It seemed the perfect idea to utilise those new Flower Power dies and is my first ever attempt at this technique. I also put the polka dot stencil through its paces, first with pink ink and then moving it slightly and heat embossing with silver.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Flower Power #1, #2, #5
Inks: Ranger Distress, picked raspberry, wilted violet; SU, wild wasabi; Mememnto, tuxedo black; Versamark clear + Ranger Superfine silver embossing powder
Dies: Uniko, Flower Power #1, #2, #5; Lil'inker, stitched mats rectamgles
Stencil: Uniko, Scattered Polka Dots
 

Next I made a present decoration using the snowflake dies with some blue holographic and white glitter card.

I attached the smaller snowflakes using some wire which I twisted round my pick up tool to get the coils.

  
Supplies:
Dies: Uniko Designer Dies, Snowflake Trio
Other: Holograpic card, glitter card, doily & wire from my stash

And finally - just in case you're thinking I've forgotten I'm a CAS girl - I made a simple little card using the wonky stripes stencil paired up with one of those Flower Power dies.

How easy are those Flower Power dies to use? Well I'm pretty rubbish at lining dies up, but because Bev has had them produced as an outline die, even I managed to position them successfully!

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Flower Power #1 & #3
Inks: Ranger Distress Oxide, peacock feathers, twisted citron; Memento, tuxedo black, rose bud, pear tart
Die: Uniko, Flower Power #1 & #3; MFT Die-namics, double stitched rectangles
Stencil: Uniko, Wonky Stripes

Well that's my shares finished for today.  And here's the blog hop order so that you can get on with your quest to try to win all four of the fabulous Uniko products featured in November's Revisit.

Bev
Carol

Deborah 
Izzy

Jane  - that's me

Lindsey

Rahmat

Sarah P

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today, thrilled to have had your company.  Good Luck and keep crafting!