Let's Celebrate!

Hi guys

Well, another weekend comes to an end but its been a gorgeous one down here in the South West so I can't really grumble that it will soon be time to return to work in the morning.

The card I'm sharing with you here is one that I've made for the latest challenge at Muse, as well as a few others I'll list further down.  I've missed a few Muse challenges lately so wanted to have a go at this one.  Teals and turquoises are my favourite colours right now so when I saw Marion Vagg's card I knew I wanted to CASE it and here's how I did...

I found a flourish stamp I've never used before, it's from a Hero Arts set which I think was free with a publication ages ago as it has no property packaging.  I teamed this us with some stripes and a sentiment from Clearly Besotted (of course!).  And yes, it's another one layer card!  I can't seem to stop :)  The photo is showing the colours a little bluer than they are in real life, its a little more teal-toned than it looks.  My camera always does funny things with blues and purples, but I'm no photographer so have to just go with the flow! :D

This just involved a little bit of masking over the stripes to stamp the flourishes before I coloured them in with FlexMarkers.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted Stamps - Basic Stripes and Many Messages; Flourish by Hero Arts
• Ink: Versa Color - Lapislazuli and Turquoise; Memento - Tuxedo Black
• FlexMarkers: Navy Blue, Surf Blue, Duck Egg

And here's Marion's gorgeous creation.  Mine's not a patch on this!

I am also linking this card up to the following challenges:

CASology - Week 100 - Celebrate
One Layer Simplicity Challenge #6 - I've Been Framed (one layer card with a border or a frame)
Dream Valley - Challenge 84 - Monochrome
DJ Kard Kreations - NBUS Challenge #1 - Celebration ('never before used schtuff' - the flourish and the sentiment)

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend.  Thanks for your visit today, you've no idea how much it brightens my day to know that you've popped by/commented.

Love Birds

Hi guys

This is going to be a really quick post tonight as one of the challenges I'm linking up to finishes in less than half an hour!

I've not had any real crafty time tonight so I've just made this really simple one layer card.  When I used to buy cards in stores it was cards like this that would catch my eye, just a simple design with lots of lovely white space :)

Using this sentiment allows this card to be suitable for an engagement, wedding or anniversary so its handy to have in my stock.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Paired Up
• Ink: Memento - Angel Pink; Versa Color - Cyan and Opera Pink; Versafine - Onyx Black

Challenge entries:

Less is More - Week 176 - One Layer Off The Edge

Clearly Besotted - Challenge #12 - Anything Goes

Love to Create - Challenge #120 - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - Monday Challenge - Anything Goes

Colour Me! - Challenge #25 - Subtle

That's all from me today.  Thanks so much for all your recent visits, I love reading what you think of my cards.  Hope to see you again very soon.

Rainbow Birthday Wishes

Hi guys

A bit of a late one for me today.  I wanted to get this one linked up today but I've been out for a meal tonight, hence the late post!

Addicted to Stamps and More are celebrating today with their 100th post, and this also happens to be their 2nd Birthday! Congratulations to Kylie and the wonderful design team for bringing us these wonderful challenges each week.  Every week there are prizes to be won so if you haven't discovered this challenge yet, why not start now and join in the fun.

Here is my card, created for this week's challenge which is a Photo Inspiration challenge...

And here is the challenge photo.  I used the rainbow of colours and the distressed look for my inspiration.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Geometric Style and It's Your Birthday
• Die: Clearly Besotted - Birthday Word Die
• Ink: Versa Color - Cardinal, Orange, Marigold, Fresh Green, Cyan, Violet and Pink; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Cardstock from stash
• Gems: Hobbycraft - Black Adhesive Gems

More challenge entries:

CASology - Week 100 - 'Celebrate'

Stamplorations - June Challenge - Stamps and Borders

Clearly Besotted - Challenge #12 - Anything Goes

Love to Create - Challenge #120 - Anything Goes

Before I go I'd just like to mention a new craft forum, Happy Little Stampers.  Here you can find crafty and non-crafty discussions and tutorials, I certainly appreciate crafty tutorials so why not join and share your hints and tips.

Right, I'm off to my bed now.  Thanks for visiting and I hope to see you very soon.

Take care

Happy Anniversary

Hi guys

Well, the weekend isn't over yet and I've managed to squeeze in another card and combine a few more challenges!

This card took ages to make, the main reason being that I scrapped the first one!  I used some ribbon on my first attempt but it just wasn't working so I managed to salvage a few bits and started again.

Here's the new and complete version!  Apologies for the dark photography, I was losing a bit of the daylight but wanted to take the pics without artificial light.

The blooms and leaves are from a two-step stamp set.  I stamped the first step of the flowers and leaves in coloured ink.  I gave this a quick zap with the heat gun to make sure it was dry before stamping the second step with VersaMark, and then heated using some white embossing powder.  These were then die cut with their co-ordinating dies.  Next I stamped the sentiment on a die cut rectangle, cut from the same cardstock as the card base.  Then came the fiddly bit!  I put some large glue dots on the reverse of the panel and then gradually coiled some jute twine around using the glue dots to hold it in place as I went.  I've no idea if there's an easier way but this works for me as glue stops the twine from shifting.  I then attached the panel to the card base with some 3D foam before organising and layering up the flowers and leaves.  A few sequins were then scattered around to finish the card.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Bridal Bouquet and Paired Up
• Ink: Versa Color - Cinnamon and Sage; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Embossing Powder: Stampin' Up - White
• Dies: Clearly Besotted - Bridal Bouquet; Spellbinders Nestabilities - Classic Rectangles Large
• Sequins: Doodlebug
• Jute twine from stash

Challenge entries:

CASology - Week 99 - Anniversary

Clearly Besotted Challenge #12 - Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #99 - CAS

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Say it with Flowers

Crafty Creations - Challenge #265 - Tic Tac Toe (I used the top row)

That's all for this weekend now folks.  Thanks so much for visiting and for your lovely comments over the last couple of days, it really is appreciated.  I hope you've all had a lovely weekend and I hope to see you again very soon.

On Your Wedding Day

Hi there

I'm back with my second card of the day.  The World Cup is great - while the man is watching the matches I'm also sitting in the lounge making cards!  Everyone's a winner...although I doubt very much that England will be! lol :)

This is another one layer card (these are fast becoming my favourite kind - who knew?!) and is made purely using stamps from Clearly Besotted (one of my absolute fave stamp companies) and ink, nothing more.

And this has got to be a record for me, I've managed to combine TEN CHALLENGES!!!  I've checked all the details on each challenge blog and I don't think I'm breaking any rules so I'm going ahead and linking them all up.

Here's this evening's creation, I went with a wedding card as I have none in my stock and you never know when someone might want one...

First I stamped the stripes.  I used pigment ink so waited a few minutes for this to dry before masking off the stripes with some post-its.  I then used a few individual stamps to build up the flowers, flower centres and leaves.  After removing the masks I stamped the sentiment, and that was all it needed.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted Stamps - Basic Stripes, Love Blossoms and Bridal Bouquet
• Ink: Versa Color - Seafoam, Orchid, Petal Pink and Bamboo; Versafine - Onyx Black

And now for the challenges, here goes...

Color Throwdown - Challenge#296

Crazy for CAS - Challenge #46 - Sketch

CASE Study - Challenge #195

Clearly Besotted - Challenge #12 - Anything Goes

One Layer Simplicity - Challenge #6 - I've Been Framed

Let's Craft and Create - Challenge #93 - Spots or Stripes

Time Out - Challenge #7 - Summer (with optional twist of flowers)

Stamplorations - June Challenge - Stamps and Borders

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #99 - CAS

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Say it with Flowers

That's all for now folks, it feels good to be back after my little blip over the last couple of weeks.  I need to do some serious organising of my stash, the way I'm working at the moment isn't ideal and I have so many bits and pieces out on my table as they need to be sorted before I put them away.  This could take some time! :D

Thanks so much for visiting and for all your lovely comments, its great to know what you think of my creations.

Bye for now

Happy Birthday Sweet Friend

Hi guys

I was wide awake really early this morning so after hanging the washing out at 6am I decided to have a look around some challenges to see what I could create.  Its a gorgeous sunny morning here so I wanted to create something bright and cheerful.

Here's my card and I'll detail the challenges I've managed to combine below:

I started by embossing my card base with a rectangular die to create a frame.  Before stamping the various butterflies I masked off the frame with some post-its.  Then I stamped the sentiment, which is four different stamps.  There are tonnes of different words in this set and I adore the font so will be using this one lots more.  This was fairly simple to create but did take some time.

Materials used:

• Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities - Classic Rectangles Large
• Stamps: Hero Arts - Little Butterflies (wood mounted); Stampin' Up - Fabulous Phrases
• Ink: Versa Color - Petal Pink, Pink, Opera Pink Orange, Marigold, Canary; Versafine - Onyx Black

And now onto the challenges...

Fusion Card Challenge

I used the photograph and the sketch for my inspiration

D J Kard Kreations - NBUS Challenge #1 - Anything Goes (friendship theme)

Most of you in crafty blogland will know the lovely Darnell and if you don't, where have you been?!  To celebrate 500 followers she has created the NBUS challenge, and is encouraging us to use our 'never-before-used-schtuff'!  I, like many, am addicted to purchasing new goodies and my old stash gets left on the shelf.  The Hero Arts butterflies had never been inked up until today and I'd only so far used one stamp from the Fabulous Phrases set.  Darnell is generously offering some fab prizes so what are you waiting for, get out your abandoned bits and bobs and link up :)

One Layer Simplicity Challenge #6 - I've Been Framed

I'm really beginning to love creating one layer cards and I embossed the frame to add some dimension while still keeping it one layer.

Less is More - Week 176 - One Layer 'Off The Edge'

I actually saw this challenge just after I'd made my card.  Rather than stamping off the edge of the card, my butterflies disappear off the edge of the masked frame so I think this still qualifies! :)

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #99 - CAS

Thanks for visiting today.  It looks like we're in for a beautifully sunny weekend down here in the South West of England so I hope its good where you are too.  This afternoon I'm off for a pamper, a facial and a manicure which was a pressie I was given for my 40th birthday.  I may be missing out on the sun for a couple of hours but I can't wait! Bliss :)

Enjoy your day whatever you're up to xx

Thank You

Hi guys

Well, I'm back after way too long without sharing any creations with you and I hope you'll forgive me for being missing since the end of May!  Life seems to have just got in the way of crafting these last couple of weeks but hopefully that blip is now over and I'll be back on a regular basis again now.

I've made a few new purchases this month so I've found my mojo tonight as I was itching to ink up two of my new stamp sets to use on this card.

For the latest challenge at Less is More we have a colour challenge and are being challenged to use 'the colours in your bedroom'.  If you've been a follower of my blog for a while you may remember I shared a card as part of my 'Inspired by...' series a while ago here and my bed linen was the inspiration, so I decided to have another go using the same colours again and came up with this...

First I stamped the stems and then stamped the two-step blooms in two yellow tones.  I then stamped the stems again on a post-it note and cut this out with a thin border and used this to mask the stems on the card.  Next I stamped the diagonal stripes across the card over the mask.  The sentiment and some Doodlebug Sprinkles were added to finish.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Stampin' Up - Too Kind; Clearly Besotted Stamps - Diagonal Stripes and Sweet Little Sentiments
• Ink: Versa Color - Bamboo, Canary, Split Pea and Cement; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Doodlebug Sprinkles - Bumblebee and Limeade

I am also entering this card into the following challenges:

My Time to Craft - Challenge #250 - No Design Papers

Let's Craft and Create - Challenge #93 - Spots and/or Stripes

Time Out - Challenge #7 - Summer with option of Flowers (nothing says summer to me more than yellow!)

Stampin' for the Weekend - Anything Goes

If you've taken the time to visit today I'm so grateful you've stuck with me even though I've been a rubbish blogger lately.  I have lots of new goodies to play with so I hope to use some of these very soon and be back here again shortly.

Take care