SOMETIMES IT PAYS TO WAIT...

Back again with another post for a few challenges and I'm glad I waited until today because it's meant that 3 challenges I was struggling with can now be combined with the Less is More Challenge and Yippee ... I love it when it all works out.

Unfortunately I think I'm using the same colours as the last 2 posts ... note to self - put these colours AWAY! Basically I was using what was on my desk to make this card hence the similar colours!

Challenges:
Less is More - THEME: 3 colours (Turquoise, Yellow & Grey)
CAS-ual Fridays - THEME: 3 of something or a Third (colours, Stripes, Sequins)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
CAS(E) This Sketch
CAS Colours & Sketches (I've tried to match the colours as close as I could with what I have)

Materials Used:
Clearly Besotted: Hello word die (double layered and glitzed with clear embossing powder
MFT Die-Namics - Pierced Rectangle Stax
Memory Box: Wave stencil
Distress Inks
Sequins - Doodlebug

      
    
Three Colour or Three Shades of One Colour


Ok that's all for me today. I have my parents arriving any time for the night as I'm taking my dad on a watercolour painting class ... he's the painter and I'm hoping to pick up some tips! Wish me luck ... I'll need it!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and catch up with you all soon.

EASTER BUNNIES OUT

Back again with a really quick post as I forgot to post this a few days ago! Duh!

It's a combined challenge entry for Clearly Besotted - Spring Theme (using the Hoppy Easter stamp and die set), Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where it's a Happy Easter and / or Sweet Treats theme and last but not least CASual Fridays where the 'code word' is 'Good Egg'

   

Ok that's definitely it for today!

See you soon.

IT'S A TRIPLE POST

Dashing in with a quick post with 3 more cards to show - Oh I have been a busy bee this weekend! Not sure when I'll next get around to posting though!

First up is to enter the CASE Study challenge which I don't always get chance to play along with but the inspiration photo was so beautiful that I couldn't resist. I've not altered it much at all but I was thrilled to use a brand new die which arrived in the post just in time! It's the Tilda Swirl die from Memory Box which I've cut out twice and rotated the top one so it looks like petals all around. I die-cut a circle from gold glitter card and sprinkled pink beads on to tie the colours together. I've rotated the card and placed a piece of embossed vellum behind the flower which has been embossed with a Birthday sentiment from ... you guessed - Clearly Besotted! A couple of sequins and gems for added sparkle and a strip of washi tape at the right of the card and that's it.

I'm also going to enter this into the CASual Fridays challenge as I've placed the flower so it is just hanging over the edge of the card.

  

Next up is to join in the celebrations over at Less is More where they are celebrating their 3rd Birthday!!! Well done ladies - I don't know any blog buddies who don't enter these weekly challenges regularly and since I started blogging I've tried to enter every week (give or take a few when I've been stumpt!) Here's to the next 3 years - I honestly don't know how you come up with so many ideas to challenge us but it's fantastic and certainly gets me focussed on a Saturday morning!

The theme this week is 'Rainbow' and this has to go down as one of the quickest cards I've ever made. I've scored some lines across the card for added detail, used a sentiment from the wonderful Clearly Besotted then a selection of coloured gems from my stash.

And last but by no means least is my entry to CAS Colours and Sketches where this week it's a duo challenge to use the sketch and colour scheme.

Once again it's the Clearly Besotted products I've reached for as these sets are new to me and I love the birds right now - you may have noticed on some of my other cards!

I've used the Love Birds and Paired Up sets plus a sentiment from the 'It's you Birthday' stamp set plus a couple of pink pearls from my stash.

Ok that's definitely it for me for today - my fingers need a break from typing! Perhaps I'll go and do some cutting and sticking instead!!!

Catch you all soon.

WARNING ... SHADES REQUIRED!

Happy Monday

I've been working today and a busy evening ahead too so very swiftly posting these 2 creations which I started yesterday and have just finished off.

First up is a combo challenge for me to Sketch Saturday and CAS-ual Fridays where the theme is 'Colour Block' hence the need for shades!

                           

Items used:
Geometric Style I Stamp set from Clearly Besotted
Sentiment also from this set plus Honeycomb
Candy Dots are from Stampin' Up
Papers are from The Papermill Shop
X-Cut Corner Punch


 


Next up is, fingers crossed, just in the nick of time to enter the Color Throwdown and Seize the Sketch Challenges. (Whoops ... having nipped over to Seize the Sketch I've missed the boat! Oh well I love the sketch so glad I could make use of it!)

It's also a commission for a man who is music mad and plays the accordion but in the absence of anything accordion-like in my stash I've used a music script die from Dies to Die for and some wooden notes from my stash

                          

Other Items used:
In the Frame Stamp & Die set from Clearly Besotted
Stars from Memory Box
Mosaic Embossing Folder from Cuttlebug
X-Cut Corner Punch

   

Sorry short and sweet. Hope you're having a good day and catch you again soon.

CHRISTMAS BREAK!

Whoopie ... I've taken a day off making a Christmas card.

It's a treble challenge trio for me and I think both the sketch and colours would have made a fun Christmas card but when a birthday card is needed ... a birthday card IS needed!

So here's my card to enter the challenges at CAS(E) This Sketch, Dynamic Duos and CAS-ual Fridays where '8' is the theme so I've stamped 8, multi-coloured rows, using Uniko Studio Background Builders - Circles and 8 sparkling gems from my stash. The flowers and sentiment are another Uniko Studio set; Flower Power 2.

I hope to be back with another post tomorrow in between birthday celebrations for my biggest baby who will be 18 tomorrow! I don't know where the years have gone since he was a tiny bundle of cuteness and definitely feeling my age now!!!

CRAFTY TUESDAY

That's right I don't normally get to craft on a Tuesday with working but I've swapped a day this week and working Friday instead

On the plus side it felt like I had a bonus craft session today so here's my card entry for the joint CAS-ual Fridays and Curtain Call Challenges. I've got to admit that having seen lots of the Curtain Call inspirational photos, I've never sat down and entered their competition but the crisp weather today got me in the mood for a wintery Christmas tree. AND having used Clearly Besotted stamps for my card I'm going to be cheeky and pop another entry into their Christmas Challenge too.

I'm trying out a brand new challenge, for me this week, at Merry Monday and as the theme is 'Trees with Bling' I simply couldn't resist!

The Image & Sentiment are from the Clearly Besotted range - Autumn Flowers & Pretty Poinsettias stamps. Not sure if you can see from the photo but I've smeared fluffy stuff onto the 'branches' then heat embossed it to give a snowy impression. The 'baubles are some flower sprinkles from my stash with brads in the centre. I've also added some silver gems as sparkly lights.

   



Here's a second card which I couldn't decide whether to post or not but here goes - it's another entry from me to the Less is More challenge (using DP in a CAS way).

The design paper, ribbon and gems are from my stash, the sentiment is from Uniko Studio and I've used an MFT Die-namics sentiment strip for the greeting with a Cuttlebug swirly embossing folder.

Thank you for all your get well messages - my cough and cold seem to be clearing up so it's back to work tomorrow. Enjoy your evening.

BLACK ON BLACK

Saturday already and hardly got any crafting done this week despite it being half term but I guess that bathroom shopping had to be done!

Anyway I do love Saturdays as I usually get chance to play with lots of challenges, whether I actually submit an entry to all of them is a different matter though! Often they end up in the bin!

When I saw the Less is More Challenge this morning I thought 'hmmm...that's not too bad' but it's harder than I thought and this first card took ages with loads of trial and error bits being flung in the rubbish! As it started to take shape I realised it could be combined with some other challenges too so here goes:

Rather than fireworks I decided to try my brand new snowflake stamp set from Uniko studio and I've stamped the background with snowflakes then embossed with black embossing powder, adding diamond gems to the centres for some added sparkle. I've used a sentiment from the same set of stamps and embossed with gold holographic embossing powder. I then stamped some black cardstock with different sizes of the snowflakes and embossed in different colours of embossing powders which I've owned for years but they hardly see the light of day. I've added pink and silver gems from my stash then cut it into a heart shape raised on 3D foam for added definition.

While my card was taking shape I decided this could also tie in with the theme at CAS-ual Fridays, where the theme is 'Embossing' and CASology, where their theme is BLACK. The sketch from Seize the Sketch came in handy too and I've added a sliver of pink design paper and a strip of pink gems from my Crafty American Auntie.

Last but not least Simon Says Stamp have an 'Anything Goes' theme so I'll be dropping it in over there too.

I was loving this black on black so much that I made another one so I'll post that one in a moment too.





      

WHERE'S THE WEEKEND GONE!

Hello Blog Pals

Can't quite believe it's almost teatime on Sunday and not sure where the weekend has gone. But I have been quite busy so I guess that's where it's all disappeared to! Firstly we had the craft event on Friday night which was quite successful ... I would have like to sell more cards but it was a learning curve! It's only the second one I've done, the first being several years ago and I vowed never to do it again! Anyway I quite enjoyed this one so who knows I may have another go at craft fairs in the future.

Secondly we had some friends over for a meal last night so lots of last minute shopping, cleaning, preparing and cooking but it's always worth it to catch up after not seeing them for a while.

Then today I've been doing more DEEP cleaning as we have friends arriving from Australia this week and my daughter has given up her room for the guests. Crikey does she accumulate dust and junk in equal measures!

So all this means little time for crafting but I thought I'd be ultra clever and make one card for 6 challenges! YES 6 challenges ... but then I read the rules at Freshly Made Sketches and had to cut it down to 4 challenges in total so here's my card:

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

CAS-ual Fridays: where the theme is Stitching and this is faux stitching as my sewing machine doesn't want to play ball when I ask it to stitch card! 

CAS on Sunday: where the theme is make a Get Well Card

CASology: the theme here is CRISP and I've interpreted this as Crisp autumn leaves. I've seen several people embossing onto vellum and if you follow my blog regularly you may realise that I fell out with stamping & embossing some years ago and am now only just getting back to it. Fortunately I didn't throw away all of my embossing powders and heat gun! So I've used clear embossing powder on the orange and gold coloured vellum then red on the red vellum. I've then glittered up the veins for some added sparkle.

Last but not least - Freshly Made Sketches

          

Card Recipe:

Image: Craft Too leafy embossing folder with leaf stamps and die from Clearly Besotted
Sentiment: Pink Petticoat
Candy Dots & Glittery Brad: Stampin Up

WHOOP WHOOP A TRIPLE CHALLENGE

Hello All

Really pleased I've finished work for the week and can now get down to the final bits and bobs for my craft event on Friday ... whoopie.

I've been having a little play in my craft pod this evening and have a card to share which is to enter this week's Colour Q Challenge along with Cas-ual Fridays where the theme is sequins and chevrons.

I've kept it quite simple and silly me got it in my head that Uniko Studio were sponsoring this challenge so I decided to use their products ... only to discover later it's CASology not Cas-ual Fridays!!! Anyway I love these little flower power stamps and sentiments so an extra excuse to use them.

You'll notice I've used a few snippety bits on this card so I'm going to pop this in at Pixies Snippets Playground Challenge too; my second entry for the week!

Off to catch up on your blogs now.

Card Recipe:

Image & Sentiment: Uniko Studio - Flower Power 1 & Natural Treasures
Chevrons die-cut using MFT die-namics
Sequins from my stash