Happy Little Stampers May 2017 - CAS Challenge

Hi there, it's time for this month's challenge over at Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge 

Here's my card using just the sentiments from Happy Little Stampers: Doodled Flowers and Everyday Sentiments sets along with images from Mama Elephant: Up, Up, and Away plus a Simon Says Stamp raindrops stencil.

Our challenge is sponsored by HLS and one lucky person will win a prize so why not join in - there's a whole month to do so!

You might even like to link up to some of the other Happy Little Stampers challenges and all the details are on the blog HERE

Ok I hope you feel inspired to play along with us and don't forget to pop along to the CAS Challenge blog found HERE where you'll find all the links and designs by fellow teamies ... you're in for a treat!

Thanks as always for visiting my blog today and catch up soon!

AAA CAS Cards Challenge #89

Hello there friends, it's time for another challenge over at AAA CAS Cards
The theme for this one is 'Bright & Beautiful' and here's my card; to be honest I wasn't quite sure which way to go with this one but roses are always a beautiful flower in my opinion so I've teamed them with a strip of glittery washi tape to add some brightness and coloured the die-cut from Memory Box with my Zig Clear Brush pens before adhering to my card base with glossy accents. The sentiment is Clearly Besotted and I hope my card will make someone feel well again!

Challenges I'd like to link to are:

Addicted to Stamps & More: Clean & Simple

Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes 

Time Out Challenges: Flowers

Here's our photo inspiration for you and as always there's plenty more super CAS creations by my fellow teamies, with links to their blogs on the AAA Cards blog HERE

We are also joined by Carol, a previous winner of our challenges, who is Guest Designing for this one. Do pop along and visit her blog and leave a friendly word and some love - I'm sure she'll appreciate it.
Our sponsor for this challenge is So Suzy Stamps and one lucky winner will receive $25 Gift Certificate.
As always thanks for calling by my blog today and I hope you feel inspired and will play along with us!

AAA Cards Challenge #70

Hi there friends it's time for a new challenge at  AAA Cards and for this fortnight we'd like to see you use some STITCHING on  your creations. There's no need to drag the sewing machine out from the back of a cupboard unless you want to as there's lots of stitched dies out there or even needle and thread 'by hand' Here's mine using a 'homespun' die from My Favourite Things,  a layered lily flower head from Altenew with a sentiment from Clearly Besotted Brushed Greetings II. To finish a few sparkly sequins from Neat and Tangled plus Pretty Pink Posh.

Here's a little photo inspiration and there's some superb ideas

from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE PLUS we have

2 very special and talented Guest Designers joining us for this one.

First up and owner of our generous Sponsor, Uniko it's Bev and Eunji of 

Follow Your Dreams and winner of our recent watercolour challenge.

I do hope you'll pop along to their individual blogs and leave them some love.

As already mentioned our sponsor for this one is Uniko

with our lucky winner receiving a £10 gift certificate to spend in store.

Thanks as always for stopping by and I'll be back soon.

Uniko Revisit - July 2016

Hello friends this month we are revisiting a previously released set over  at Uniko which works perfectly with the Paradise sets released last month.  So our revisit set for this month is Paradise: Hummingbird
Here I've created a card very similar to one I made for the DT Release hop  day but in a different colourway, and also incorporating both the  Paradise Leaves and the Hummingbird sets.

 The sentiment is a mixture from both sets and the hummingbird is 

heat-embossed in clear embossing powder then inked over with 

distress inks in those hot and tropical shades.

Don't forget to hop along to the other DT members and leave a comment

to be in with a chance of winning a prize. All the details are on the

main Uniko blog HERE and here's the hop order ...

Beverley

Jane

Lindsey

Nicki

Sarah P - That's me!

In case you've forgotten what this revisit set looks like here it is:

Thanks for stopping by today and good luck with the hop.

Less is More #283

Hey Happy Saturday friends! It's time for a new challenge at Less is More and we are back round to our colour week. We've chosen a fun little colour idea for you ...
Colours of your kitchen don't we all just love being a little nosey eh!
Here's mine and don't forget to head over and visit my teamies blogs as they've got some stunning ideas too.

This one uses a woodgrain background stamp from Winnie and Walter

which echos the style and colour (almost) of my units, there's a very 

dark grey floor (I simply have to with a dog trailing mud inside).

Curtains, blinds and accessories are in shades of teal, mint and lime

 green as shown in the strange-coloured apples from Clearly Besotted:

 Apple of My Eye and the Doodlebug Sprinkles

It's an Anything Goes week at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge

so I'd like to pop this one in there.

This one uses the same woodgrain background stamp from Winnie

& Walter with a sentiment from Altenew Brushstroke Sentiments

(thanks again Anita!) ;) plus the blooms are from the recently released 

stamp set Paradise by Uniko. The woodgrain embossed panel is

mounted on fun foam for added dimension and a couple of sparkly 

sequins from Pretty Pink Post to add a bit of bling.

Last but not least I couldn't resist using the Doodled Flowers stamp set 

from Happy Little Stampers; our generous sponsor for July.

I stamped the images from the set and coloured some of them with promarkers

leaving the others as outlines. The sentiment is by Winnie & Walter (thanks to 

a little de-stash purchase from Michelle Short) and I've added some coordinating

sequins from my stash around the edges.

I'd like to pop this card in at the Anything Goes with HLS Stamps

I hope you enjoy this one and thanks as always for calling by.

See you soon

Uniko Revisit Pure Florals: Cosmos

Hi there friends it's time to dust off and revisit a previously released Uniko stamp set and this month Bev has chosen the 
Pure Florals: Cosmos set
Here's my card and I've teamed it with the recently released Some Bunny set to make another Easter card.

Here's the image of the set and you'll see the flowers are

simply awesome and great for adding colour with all sorts of mediums

Just to show that you can use the images without colouring here's another 

card as I'm slightly addicted to removing watercolour pigment with clear water!

To add a little interest to the card base I've stamped the outline flower around

the edges. The 'inner' panel is coloured using distress inks then more outline images

added just at the base. I've added water to the petals of each of the blooms with a 

paint brush to remove the colour ever so slightly and added a sentiment from 

Paradise Humming Bird with a few sequins from my stash.

As usual there's more gorgeous creations by my fellow teamies over on the Uniko blog 

HERE plus details of the blog hop and how to win the set plus a £10 eGift Certificate.

 Good luck and have fun!

A Little Sunday Challenge Duo

Hi there friends, I've managed to make a few cards today and for  once some of them were purely to enter challenges!
First up I'm heading across to Happy Little Stampers: Case the Designer Challenge  but I've also used the 'smooshing' technique which is the current theme at their CAS Challenge this month so hoping to sneak in there also with this one!

I started out by smooshing some distress inks in Mustard Seed, Carved Pumpkin

and Picked Raspberry onto some acetate before transferring to watercolour card. 

I die-cut the watercolour card panel using Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circle Dies 

then mounted on 3d foam. Next up I've heat embossed and fussy cut the butterfly 

from Happy Little Stampers Birthday Butterfly set and smooshed with Picked Raspberry. 

The sentiment is from the same set and embossed with Hero Arts White EP.

To finish some coordinating enamel sprinkles from Doodlebug. 

Here's Kylie's card which I've cased using similar colours, smooshing 

and a butterfly theme as my inspiration. 

  

  

           

Next up is for the current challenge at CASology where the theme is 'Open'  

I've used the new Window die from Clearly Besotted and die-cut several times 

to layer them up and hopefully give the impression of 'open'. The owl is from

Clearly Besotted Woodland Pals and I've even used the 'kissing' technique

we are featuring at Less is More this week ... even though I wasn't keen!!!!

I thought it added a little interest to the owl along with his googlie eyes.

The sentiment is also Clearly Besotted: Sweet Little Sentiments and I've added

some foliage using the Natures Treasures II set from Uniko.

Ok that's all for now - I'm off to watch War and Peace on Catch up!

Thanks for calling by and I'll be back later in the week.

Less is More #222

Hi there, it's Saturday ... Yippee What's more it's a bank holiday weekend in the UK! so a little bit more crafty time - and I'm MEGA excited!!!
WHY? ... I'll tell you .... 
Super duper A* talent Jen (ex-LIM DT) and I have arranged a  first time meet up and crafty session this weekend!
I cannot wait! I'm hoping to learn some tricks and tips and  so looking forward to watching a complete pro at work.
Ok ... back to this week's challenge over at  Less is More
It's colour week this week and we'd like you to use opposites on the colour wheel; here's my cards.

 

I've completely stepped out of my comfort zone here as I would

never put Orange and Turquoise together but I love it!

Card Recipe:

Uniko Studio: Paradise Humming Bird

It's heat-embossed in Black then water coloured using DI in Spiced Marmalade

Memory Box: Wave Stencil inked in Salty Ocean & Broken China DIs
Card-io: Oriental Whisper & Sakura blooms stamp sets
(incidentally, I've NEVER watched Create & Craft TV until 2 weeks ago
when I heard Card-io were being featured and having met Wendy at a couple
of craft shows I simply had to watch ... and buy of course!)

I'd like to enter this card over at CASology - theme 'Flight'
and Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

   

My second card is one for the Christmas box stash ... 

you guessed I've gone with traditional red & green!

Card Recipe: Clearly Besotted: Joy to the World - dies Autumn Flowers stamps & dies Stamplorations: Christmas Flower (believe sentiment) MFT Die-Namics: Basic Stitched borders Ranger Enamel Accents and Doodlebug Sprinkles to finish Polka dot DP is from Pink Petticoat
I'd like to link this one up at Merry Monday and The Challenge

Thanks as always for stopping by and don't forget to  head across to the Less is More blog HERE to see what the other  DT members have been up to, as well as Anita from Neet and Crafty who is our Guest Designer again this week so hope you'll leave  her lots of lovely comments.

April Showers

Hello there - first day back at work and I've survived! Well almost ... IT issues! Grrrr! 
Anyway I've a card to share that I made yesterday but my photographer  had gone AWOL so it's only just ready for posting!!! 

Card Recipe:

Clearly Besotted: April Showers - Umbrella die

and Say It In Style sentiments

Simon Says Stamp: Raindrops Stencil

Winnie & Walter: Big Bang Confetti stamps - to add a bit of detail to the brollies

Distress Inks: Broken China, Tumbled Glass, Picked Raspberry & Wild Honey

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

Addicted to CAS - Code word: Showers

CAS Colours & Sketches - I veered a little from the sketch

but thought I'd fancy my chances! I seem to have got out of 

the habit of entering this one so need to try harder.

Simon Says Stamp: April Showers & Flowers

this is my 3rd entry but this time without the flowers!

    

Well that's all for now and thanks for calling by.

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

FEELING MORE POORLY ...

And here's the second one for Less is More...

Card Recipe:

Image: Clearly Digi Stamps - Silly Citrus
Sentiment: Pink Petticoat
Twine from my stash, base of card embossed with a Mini Mosaic Folder