Tuesday Talk

When I saw the vibrant colours of the inspiration photo at Kraftgali I knew I wouldn't be able to resist their challenge. So I didn't even try to resist!

My card is a very literal interpretation of the photo:

I die cut the stitched rectangle and then stamped the flower in opposite corners using a mix of yellow and hot pink.  I added the greeting and a trio of little black dots to finish off.
 

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Pure Florals Gerbera, Birthday Sentiments
Inks: Memento, tuxedo black; Ranger distress, mustard seed, picked raspberry
Die: MFT Die-namics, double stitched rectangles
Embellishments: Hobbycraft, black gemstones

So pleased to have you company here on my blog today, thanks so much.

And keep crafting! 

Monday Moment

There's a fabulous sketch at CAS Colours & Sketches this week and I've just about time to play along with it.

In fact I loved it so much that I made two cards. Here's my first card:

This pretty little mermaid has been sitting patiently waiting in my stash for far too long, so this was the perfect sketch to give her an airing. And I so loved choosing all the colours and really ejoyed using her.

Supplies:
Stamps: Clearly Besotted, Fairy Tale Mermaid
Ink: Memento, tuxedo black
Dies: Lawn Fawn, large stitched square stackables; MFT Die-namics, stitched fishtail flag
Pens: Cpics: E000, R20, B00, B02, Y35, E33, YG13, YG17 , YG 67, C1, C3, C5, C7, RV63, RV66, BV11, BV13, BV17; sAKURA GELLY ROLL, WHITE

And here's my second card:

This one is a bit more layered up and I raised the image square with foam. This one is destined for a friend who's about to undergo an operation.

Supplies:
Stamps: Sugar Pea, Caring Critters
Inks: Memento, tuxedo black
Dies: Lawn Fawn, large stitched square stackables; MFT Die-namics, stitched fishtail flag
Pens: Copic, B00, N1, E50, E51, E55, V12, V15, V17
Embellishments: Doodlebug Sprinkles, blue jean asst.

Thanks so much for dropping by today , it's been wonderful to have you visit my blog.

And keep crafting!  

AAA Cards Challenge #110 - Ombre

Today I'm sharing a couple of cards I made for the new AAA Cards Challenge where the theme is Ombre.

And I guess I took a really easy way to achieve my dark to light ombre look and used paint strips.

I simply punched a snowflake from each of the shades and trimmed off the label words from the strip.  I had enough left over to punch a few extra snowflakes and I attached these in a drift to the right of the greeting quote.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Most Wonderful
Ink: SU, Bermuda Bay
Paint strip: Dulux, Javan Dawn
Punch: X cut 

As this technique is so easy and quick I got carried away and made a second card. This time I picked some pinks and die cut the flowers before attaching them to a banner with the greeting stamped below.

I stamped the flowers middles using Staz On ink as the paint strips have a bit of a plastic feel to their surface.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Flower Power #5 * Pure Florals Cosmos
Ink: Staz On, Jet black
Dies: Uniko, Flower Power #1; MFT Die-namics, stitched fishtail flag
Paint Strip: Dulux, Fuchsia Falls
Gems: Hobbycraft 

There are loads more ideas for creating an ombre look on the AAA Cards blog - HERE - so do go take a peek. And I'm looking forward to seeing all your CAS cards popping up in the gallery there.

Huge thanks for coming to visit my blog today, I really appreciate sharing your time.

And keep crafting! 

Saturday Slot

I'm giving you a heads up that this post is scrapbook page heavy and contains a big share of pages I've been creating recently as part of Shimelle's Clear The Desk class.

I still consider scrapbooking as my number one crafting love, it's just that card making is way more popular in the UK so that's what I tend to do most of. But I keep chugging away in the background preserving memories and every so often a tempting class comes along, I fall head over heels in love with scrapbooking all over again and can't resist sharing what I've made. And my usually organised and tidy craftroom becomes a complete and utter jumble with supplies spread out everywhere.

Anyway enough of this chit chat let's get on and share what I've been up to.

One set of supplies pulled from my stash following the guidelines of Shimelle's class - not going to say anything more because you'll need to sign up if you want the details - HERE.

Page 1 - embracing my CAS horror of busy all over patterned papers!

Page 2 - a sitting on the shelf layout and much more my style.

Page 3 - some more in your face patterned paper and an oversized and very precious photo capture - aww!

Page 4 -  the addition of a plain kraft background paper, almost back in my comfort zone now!

Page 5 -  another almost comfort zone plain kraft background and one, or maybe more, 'stop taking photos' face.

Page 6 - A final page attempting to use up as much of the left over supplies as possible. It features the beautiful Isle of Man and a couple of 'if you have to take photos we'll pull faces' looks.

So from one starting collection of papers plus a couple of plain additions along the way I've made six pages using up lots of the patterned paper that I love to look at - maybe even stroke - but struggle to use. I'd say that's a win win for 'Clear the Desk' wouldn't you?

Thanks for indulging me and my love of scrapbooking today, it'll be back to cards again tomorrow I promise. But just in case you might have enjoyed this post there will be some more coming up quite soon as this was only Lesson 1 of 4 in this Shimelle mini class. And she is good! And I do highly recommend her classes.

Thanks for looking and keep crafting!

Happy Little Stampers - March CAS Challenge

This month at Happy Little Stampers we have a super theme for the CAS Challenge - HOME.

And I took the theme literally and used a die cut of HOME and made a change of address announcement card.

Once the word was cut I inked over the bottom of it so that it would stand out a little bit more from the white card base. I then stamped, coloured and handcut a house, popped it up on pads and placed it over the 'O' in home.

Supplies:
Stamps: Lawn Fawn, Home Sweet Home
Inks: Ranger distress, cracked pistachio; Memento, tuxedo black
Die: Winnie & Walter, Home cutaway
Pens: Copic, C1, C3, Y18; Promarker, soft green

So how will the word HOME inspire you? Check out the rest of the HLS DT cards - HERE - for loads more ideas.

Thanks for looking today, I'm always pleased to have you visit.

And keep crafting!

Friday Focus

I'm here today to share the last of the atcs I made in honour of Janis's 60th birthday challenges. The final theme was 'And Then ..... Chocolate'.

Now this one was a real challenge! Not that I have any trouble with chocolate in real life, but how to craft with it proved far more troublesome! Anyway here's what I came up with:

I created the chocolate quote on my computer and then used a second stamping of chocolate chip ink to stamp all over it with a Christmas bauble stamp. Yeah tenuous link here - chocolate and Christmas sort of go hand in hand don't they? The horizontal strip is supposed to look like a line of chocolate from a bar.

Supplies:
Stamps: Create a Smile, Delicate Decorations
Ink: SU, chocolate chip

Thanks for dropping by today, hope you enjoyed my chocolate post.  Maybe I've made you feel like you need to rush off to the shops to buy some now! 

But you could always keep crafting instead - it will stop you from eating too much chocolate! 

Thursday Thoughts

And here's my third atc for Janis's 60th birthday party.  The theme for week 3 is 'Adorable Teapot Collection'. Janis has some photos of her absolutely delightful teapot collection on her blog and they remind me of a favourite tea shop I've been to a few times in Nottingham. I'm sharing a scrapbook page I made about one of my visits at the end of this post.

Here's my atc:

I've layered up a bit for this atc and also included a heart to encompass the adorable part of the theme.

Supplies:
Stamps: Magazin freebie from quick Cards, Time For tea; uniko, I Love Tea
Inks: Memento, tuxedo black; SU, berry burst
Paper: MF, Kitschy Kitchen
Pens: RV09, N1, Y35, YG17
Embellishments: Stickers and washi from my stash 

Only one more atc card to make for Janis's birthday now and the theme for that is Chocolate. Hoping to get that made tonight and up on the blog tomorrow.

Oh and here's that scrapbook page:

Thanks for looking today, it's been great to have a little company.

And keep crafting!