Friday Focus

A trio of Easter cards to share today.

The new Spring challenge over at Clearly Besotted gave me the perfect excuse to break open one of my newly purchased stamp sets from their April release.  Then I found these yummy colours at Color Throwdown - reminds me of sugared almonds.

 

So that's where I started with my new stamps and those gorgeous pastel colours.

The main image of the stamp came together really quickly and I knew I wanted to use the banner for the sentiment.  But the Easter stamp was too large and I really liked the font, so a way had to be found. At first I tried a circle punch that fit nicely around the stamp, but it slipped when I was pressing down and one edge turned out straight.  That gave me the idea to straighten the other side too and as I liked the result I stuck with this happy accident.

A very simple and CAS card which I found quite appealing.  So I made another in a different colourway:

And then, as I often do, I made another:

Supplies:
Stamps: Clearly Besotted, Pretty Petals, Fresh Flowers
Die: Clearly Besotted, Tag Along
Inks: Card 1 - Memento, cantaloupe; Ranger Distress, bundled sage
         Card 2 - Memento, rhubarb stalk, pistachio
         Card 3 - Memento, dandelion, tangelo, bamboo leaves

Wonder which is your favourite colour combo?

Thanks for dropping by today, your visit to my blog is greatly appreciated.

Jane
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Thursday Thoughts and Ten on the Tenth

One card for two challenges to share today. And a big thank you to The Memory Nest for featuring one of my scrapbook pages on their blog.

So it seems very appropriate that my card says Many Thanks.  I used the layout from Unscripted Sketches and the colour theme from Less is More.  I've tried very hard to keep this card CAS - only two layers and plenty of white space - a look I think I'm getting the hang of.  In fact I struggle a bit now to add layers and no longer find complicated sketches so appealing.

I found three versions of turquoise ink in my stash and stamped the bottom half of the card in a repeating pattern.  A strip of washi tape separated the bottom from the top and a simple butterfly tag finished it all off.  I chose a butterfly stamp and a rounded tag to soften the very straight lines of the rest of the card.

 

Less is More

The colour challenge this month is

A Touch Of Turquoise
Please remember to keep your submissions 
CLEAN AND SIMPLE
Rather a lot of layers have been creeping into submissions... so please don't forget to leave that 
WHITE SPACE 

in evidence.

 

Supplies:

Stamps: Clearly Besotted, Say It In Style; Stampin Up, Papillon Potpourri; Uniko Studio, Background Builders SQUARED & Christmas

Ink: Adirondack, pool; Memento, teal zeal, tuxedo black; Versa Color, 20 turquoise

Embellishments: twine

And now for my ten on the tenth.  This month I've gone with ten crafts that are part of my life at the moment.

1.  Has to be making cards, of course! This is an older favourite when I was just starting out on my  CAS journey. 

2. My absolute love - scrapbooking. This is a favourite page about a very favourite visit from last year.  Can't wait to revisit again this year.

3.  A variation on the above - a digital scrapbook page all about two of my best boys. I tend to go digital when I'm pushed for time or my workspace is covered with card making goodies.  I've now put all my digital supplies onto my laptop I keep at my Dad's, so I'll be able to scrap and keep him company at the same time.

4. My newest love and skill - crochet.  Just look how my blanket is growing.  I'm loving doing this so much I know I'll start another immediately this one is complete.

 

5.  A craft I've been doing all my life - knitting. This is a baby blanket I finished a while ago.  I've got another on the go at Dad's, but it's just beginning to get a bit too warm to knit.  I'm definitely a Winter cold weather knitter.

 

6.  Another craft I've been doing for years - cross stitch.  This is nearly finished, just needs the rest of the outlining to be stitched.  I was given this kit by my Aunt's foster daughter when she was over from USA visiting February 2013.  Cross stitch tends to be my Summer alternative to knitting.  I need the better light now my eyes are getting older!

 

7.  A craft I've dabbled in over the years, but am now becoming a bit addicted to - patchwork.  This is my recently finished throw and a cushion which live on one of my bargain yard sale chairs. Both chairs for £9:00!!! As you can imagine the throw fabrics cost so much more!

8.  A very new and still much to be learnt and practised craft - quilting.  This is actually the back of the throw and shows the quilting - and all its imperfections - really clearly.

 

9.  Another craft I've been doing for ever - dressmaking.  I'm not sure which came first sewing or knitting, but both date back to my childhood and owe much to the patience and encouragement of my Nana.  This top was made last Summer and I wore it so much that I'm probably going to have to make a new version for this year.

 

10.  And finally taking photos.  I'm not sure if this qualifies for a craft, but is so much a part of who I am and what I love to do I couldn't not include it. 

Well this has turned out to be a mega long post.  If you've made it this far you've earned a golden star and I'm very grateful for your interest.

If you've just flicked to the bottom, I'm still grateful that you dropped by today and I do understand!

Thanks for looking.

Jane

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Monday Moments

Such a pretty colour scheme over at CAS Colours & Sketches this week and delightful cards from the DT.  Just couldn't resist it!  So here's my take:

 

Supplies:

Stampss: Clearly Besotted, Good Times

Inks: Memento, rich cocoa, angel pink

Paper: Sweet Memories

Punches: Martha Stewart, button & butterflies

Embellishments: Washi tape; twine; doodlebug mini pearls, Spring assortment

Absolutely loving this bicycle stamp from Clearly Besotted, can't stop using it!  Also managed to get an order in, before everything sold out, for some of their new release. So I'm waiting excitedly for the postman to come.

Thanks for dropping by today.

Jane
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Friday Focus

Good Morning! Can't believe I'm posting again already, but I had a lovely morning crafting yesterday and decided to strike while the iron's hot.

Today's card uses the pretty colours from Color Throwdown and the layout from Freshly Made Sketches.  Initially I made the card to match the sizes on the sketch, but my CAS brain wanted me to shrink it down and I couldn't help myself preferring the smaller look.

The flower stamp is my favourite from Uniko Studio - it just ticks all the boxes for me.  I stamped it onto patterned paper - and yes it was from my doodlebug pad again - then cut it out and mounted it onto pads for dimension.

I also put the background card through a cuttlebug embossing folder to give even more dimension and some texture. The pool coloured card has texture too and is left over from a holiday scrapbook album.

Finally I added an olive coloured pearl and my card was done.

 

    

Supplies:

Stamps: Uniko Studio, Flower Power #3

Ink: Memento, tuxedo black

Paper: doodlebug, kraft in color; AC cardstock, pool

Embossing: Cuttlebug

Embellishments: doodlebug, mini pearls Spring assortment

So here we are in April already and I decided to make my 1st of the month journal a little more exciting by going out for the day.  Turns out it was a great decision as the weather was amazing and Kedleston Hall and its grounds really beautiful. 

Still ended the day with comfort television, but I'm always so impressed by the versatility and imagination of the sewers on the Sewing Bee. 

Here's my pages:

And yes James did eat maltesers for breakfast!

Thanks for dropping by today.  Have a great weekend.

Jane

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Thursday Thoughts

Today Lincolnshire is supposed to be getting the worst of the air pollution that's been plagueing the UK this week.  Well it certainly looks gloomy, but so far thankfully no evidence of the smog clouds that I've seen on the television.

A card for The Male Room seemed appropriate as their theme is Science Fiction.  Well to me that means space travel out into the blackness searching for stars and was just the excuse I needed to break open my new Clearly Besotted Superstar stamp set.  The sentiment is just so positive and aspirational - love it!

I started by die cutting some stars into textured black card and placing my current go to favourite paper by doodlebug behind the apertures.  Next I picked one of the colours from the paper for my stamped star.  I cut it out and mounted it onto pads before placing it onto the outer space darkness. And then my own little space odyssey was complete - hope you like it.

Supplies:
Stamps: Clearly Besotted, Superstar
Inks: Adirondack, pool; Versa Magic, cloud white
Die: Xcut
Paper: doodlebug, take note 

Also have just realised I've not expressed my thanks for picking my card as one of the winners for a previous challenge at The Male Room. So here's the badge I'm proud to display!

 

I now just need to tidy up by sharing my March calendar and then I can settle down to embrace some new challenges for April - something very exciting happening to share later this month :)

  

Thanks for dropping by today.

Jane

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Wednesday Words

A couple of cards to share today.

First up is a card with lots of circles which uses the layout from Unscripted Sketches and the theme from Less is More.

I made this card with my oldest grandson in mind and picked his favourite colours for the sentiment and cascading sequins.  He's recently achieved two swimming awards which involved tasks like picking up a brick from the bottom, swimming set distances and treading water for a set time. And then he told me the second award had to be completed wearing clothes - quite an achievement for a nine year old!

I sprinkled stickles glitter quite liberally across this card to really make it sparkle and match the sentiment - it doesn't really show up that well in the photo.

 

Less is More

The theme for your cards this week is 

ROUND and ROUND 

Supplies:

Stamp: Joanna Sheen, Words One; Uniko Studio, A Gift For You

Inks: Memento, lady bug, tangelo, dandelion

Embellishments: Stickles, Star Dust

Words 2

My second card today uses a sketch from Sketch Saturday.  As there were five Saturdays in March the challenge allowed you to choose a favourite layout from past sketches.  I chose this one:

 

And here's my card:

 

I chose this image from the new LOTV release because it reminded me so much of one of my daughters in law and I tried to colour the dog to look like their dog Murray.  He's a greyhound, so unlikely to ever be climbing trees, whereas she is more than happy to be hanging upside down!

Got to love her!!

Thanks for dropping by today, your visit is greatly appreciated.

Jane

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