Baby, it's cold outside!

Hello, crafting friends!

It's time for a new challenge at Addicted to CAS! Ceal is hosting this fortnight and she's chosen Snow as her code word. 

Snow usually makes me think of Christmas, even though it's quite rare to have a white Christmas here in the heart of England! But I think a snowflake motif also works well for sending heartwarming cards in the winter. 

I started this card with a retired die from the Stained Glass set by Stampin' Up. I cut it twice and attached it to a card base with spray glue. The banner is from Winnie & Walter's Sugar Rush which I stamped in green/blue ink and added the sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Warm Wishes. The snowflakes are from Dies By Chloe and the centres have been decorated with gems.

Now it's over to you! What comes to your mind when you hear the word snow? There's plenty of inspiration from the rest of the team at Addicted to CAS as well as a beauty from our talented guest designer Melanie. Click here to have a browse and to link up your own creation :)

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Happy Little Stampers' Anything Goes With Dies challenge and am also joining in with Cardz for Guyz where the theme is Let it Snow.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Well we DID have snow last week, but only briefly. A little dusting on the ground when I took Eva out in the morning and a few of those tiny magical flakes that fall very slowly. By the time we got home, it had stopped and the snow on the ground had pretty much gone. Enough for me to sing 'Do you wanna build a snowman?' to the empty fields but not enough to actually build one!!

Sending hugs,

A warming cup of hot chocolate

Hello, crafting friends!

There's no doubt that the idea of a large mug of steaming hot cocoa, topped with whipped cream and marshmallows, is extremely attractive when you've just been rained on for an hour and a half! Today's card fulfilled that desire without any of the calories! 

I painted an acrylic block with some red and mustard inks mixed with water and smooshed it onto a piece of watercolour paper, then loaded my brush with the watery mustard ink and tapped it onto a pair of scissors to add splatters. I also tapped my Wink of Stella pen against the scissors to add a touch of glimmer. The panel was left to dry while I made a cup of hot chocolate.

No, not to drink! To add to the card! I stamped the large mug from Waffle Flower's Books and Coffee and used alcohol markers to colour it. Snowflakes from Funky Fossil's Christmas Characters were added using white craft ink. There's a cute little label in Books and Coffee which I stamped, cut out and decorated with the tiny heart from the set. The cream/marshmallows is a cloud from Inky Doodles' Somebunny To Love, stamped and fussy cut and the candy cane is a snippet of striped designer paper cut out with the handle of Stampin' Up's Umbrella punch - cunning huh?!

The panel was stamped with a sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Cosy Christmas and mounted on a dark red mat before it was added to the card base.

CHALLENGES

The photo at The Card Concept really caught my eye this fortnight and I was inspired by the red mug, snowflake motif, the blurred background and the hot chocolate to create my Mixed Media card. I'm also joining in with CAS Mix Up where the theme is Splatters and Happy Little Stampers Water Colour where Anything Goes.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We're big fans of hot chocolate as a treat in our family. The topping of marshmallows is known as marshMELLOWS because my youngest son misheard the word when he was little. We have lots of family words that he, as the youngest, misheard. Once, the Olympic Games were being held in a year when we holidayed by the sea. We would watch bits of the event on TV in the evenings and talked  about the Olympics often. While playing in the rock pools on the beach during the day, I pointed out limpets to my youngest son. All of us now call them Olympets as he heard the word! We have Nice Creams too, possibly because of the same holiday!

Sending hugs,

Grin and bear it

Hello, crafting friends!

I thought I'd better get on with making some of this year's birthday cards. Because I think birthdays are still happening this year... Aren't they? Who knows!

This bear is from Waffle Flower's Books and Coffee and I've given him a bit of a makeover today. I masked off the book he normally holds before inking him up and then, after removing the mask (that's a very important step to remember lol!) stamped him on an offcut of white card stock. There's a little cup in the set which I thought I could use as a hat. I used a marker to ink it up minus the handle and stamped it upside down on his head. This struck me as so funny, I had a fit of the giggles all the time I was doing it!

The bear was coloured with a couple of Uni Pin Fineliner pens, making tiny little strokes to get the furry look, and his striped top was added using a fineliner and a ruler. I cut him out with sharp paper snips and attached him to a small card base, adding a simple sentiment from MFT's From Me To You. I went mad decorating the envelope with washi tape, lining the strips up carefully and trimming off the excess with sharp paper snips.

CHALLENGES

I was bowled over by the bear on the inspiration picture at this week's Inspired By challenge and couldn't resist giving it a go. I think you can see I went a bit literal with it!! I'm also linking up at Seize The Birthday. I was tempted to add snow to the background as per the Topping this month, but decided to leave it as a minimalist card for one of the males in my family! Talking of males, I'm also joining in with The Male Room where the theme this month is Animals. And also The Rainbow Card Challenge where the theme is Nothin' But Neutrals.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Oh, I can't tell you how much I'm longing for the spring! It's grey and raining again in the heart of England and it's doing nothing for the mood! Eva and I went out for a very soggy walk this morning and while she had a great time, I can't truthfully say I did. When we got home I bathed her, gave her a good old rub down and spread a warm towel on the sofa for her. And here she is in a deep untroubled sleep, not worrying about the future at all.

We can learn a lot from dogs!

Sending hugs,

Hello my son!

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another fun challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches! This week we have a great sketch to inspire you with:

Isn't it brilliant?! You can use anything for the non-geometric shape so it's very versatile. Here's is what I came up with:

To make my road, I masked off the top and bottom of a thick card base and blended grey ink to a fade on the remaining strip. I masked that off with the bottom of the card and used the leaves from Stampin' Up's Sheltering Tree to stamp the suggestion of a hedge. I added a little more sponging and doodled in some grass details and then the background was ready for the star of the show!

I adore this character from MFT's Pile on The Hugs because he reminds me of my youngest son. I stamped him, coloured him with alcohol markers, fussy cut him and popped him up on dimensionals. The sentiment is from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks and completes a card that I'm sure will give my son a laugh :)

You can see all the inspiration from my talented teamies here and can link your own creation up there too!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with The Rainbow Card Challenge where this month the challenge is Nothin' But Neutrals. 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

One of the things that reminds me of my son in the stamp I used today, is the cardigan the figure is wearing. My son had one just like it when he was maybe 9 or 10. It was made of softy grey wool and was padded and lined. My son declared it was the most comfortable thing ever! It was a really nice garment at first but, after being worn almost every single day and only ever being washed when I could wrestle him out of it, it began to look a little disreputable and we rudely nicknamed it 'the dog blanket'. Ahhh, happy memories!

Sending hugs,

Warm woolly hugs

Hello, crafting friends!

It's been a day of crafting between wrapping up warm for walks today - and that may have influenced my card a little! Come and see:

This lovely lady from Winter Wear by Concord & 9th is all bundled up in her winter woollies, but I think you can tell she's a bit of a fashion icon because of those snazzy lenses in her specs! All the elements in Winter Wear come separately, which I love because it means you can get creative. I stamped her hair, the glasses and the scarf and from there it was easy to fill in the lower part of her face and a jumper.

Everything was coloured with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. To give the card a bit of depth, I used two stencils from Funky Fossil: Knitted, which I stencilled over the top of my jumper, and Fancy Trellis, for a hint of background. The sentiment is from my well-used Simply Said Blocks set from Uniko.

CHALLENGES

I was inspired by some of my favourite challenges: Less Is More, where the theme is Fashion and/or Accessories; Just Us Girls, where the challenge is to Just Use Stencils; Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where anything using stencils goes; and Allsorts, where they want us to use our favourite colour (mine are greens, yellows, oranges, but I've gone for mainly green here.)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

One of my favourite gifts I received at Christmas was a set of Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. My family tend to steer away from giving me craft items because they know that I am quite specific about the things I buy.  But this year, my son had casually admired my display of markers, triggering a conversation about how much I loved using them and how I was building up my collection. He had snuck back to the display afterwards and made a note of all the pens I already had (quite a task!) and ordered a pack that had no duplicates in it. Cunning huh?! But also SO thoughtful!

Sending hugs,

Happy birthday gorgeous girl!

Hello, crafting friends!

I think it's always lovely to celebrate a birthday with a picture of your best friend on a card - especially when the bestie in question is an adorable dog! 

I didn't have any stamps that look like her except this one from the choir in Clearly Besotted's Howl It's Christmas. So I stamped the whole choir in SU Crumb Cake ink, added her kind of tail with the matching marker and coloured her with alcohol markers before carefully cutting her away from the rest of the choir. The edges of the cut-out was carefully coloured with the SU marker to give it a 'finished' look.

The best place for a pup is a walk in the countryside, so I took a small card base, positioned a circle template on the front and sponged pale yellow ink into it. Without moving the circle template, I placed the grassy part of Funky Fossil's Scenic Border stencil over it and sponged brown ink inside. The stencil was moved down and the process repeated to get a nice textured ground. The little dog was placed on dimensionals on the background and the card was finished with a sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Fly With Me, stamped onto sponged cardstock and trimmed with sharp paper snips.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card with AAA Birthday Challenge where they want to see a stencilled background this month; I'm also joining in at Addicted to Stamps and More, which has morphed into a fortnightly challenge and this fortnight it's Make Your Mark.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Here's the young lady that inspired today's card. Isn't she a beauty?

And look at the card again - can you even tell the difference? Lol!!

Sending hugs, 

The hills are alive!

Hello, crafting friends!

A quick post today as I suddenly got the urge to make a card and it gets dark so quickly now that it's hard to photograph them.

I'm using a new stamp set, Pile on the Hugs by MFT. I got it because I thought the little figures could be used as cute versions of my grown up children which will make them smile. First up - my daughter! This is exactly the sort of thing she would do on top of a hill, and in my mind I can hear her singing 'The hills are alive' and doing a great Julie Andrews impression! I stamped the figure, coloured her with alcohol markers and fussy cut her.

I made a background byy masking off the bottom and sides of the card and inking in a brown hill with a homemade curved stencil. Above that are some stencilled clouds - I used Scenic Border stencil from Funky Fossil and light grey ink for this. I popped my figure up on dimensionals and finished the card with a lovely curvyy sentiment from Strictly Sentiments 2 by WPlus9.

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with some of my favourite challenges which I'm delighted to see arrive back after the holidays. At the Paper Players, LeAnne would like to see us Use Something New; Nancy is hosting at Just Us Girls and wants to see cards featuring the word Hello; and at the Color Throwdown Amy has come up with a great wintery palette of Rust, Cream and Brown. I'm also linking up with NBUS where Darnell wants to see your Never Before Used Schtuff in a very inspiring gallery :)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It's still cold and frosty here, which I love because it means no muddy pups when we get back from our walks :) I had to laugh this morning as the first thing I saw on a VERY frosty morning was a van parked outside with Frost Family Van Hire on the side of it. I hadn't realised the frost was delivered by van!!

Sending hugs,

Tartan thanks

Hello, crafting friends!

I'm still pinching myself about joining the design team at CAS Colours and Sketches but we are starting our year of fabulous challenges today so I guess it's all true! We're kicking off with a fabulous colour challenge:

While I was making this 'moving house at Christmas card', it crossed my mind that the clapperboard stamp in WPlus9's New Home could be used to make plaid, so that's what I've done with these colours!

I trimmed a panel with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle, masked off the bottom on the diagonal and sponged Pool Party ink over the top part. Then, using my stamping platform, I stamped fine lines in Cherry Cobbler using the Clapperboard stamp, and thicker lines in Bermuda Bay using a stamp from Uniko's useful Background Builders Classics.

Once I'd stamped my background I attached the panel to a card base and topped it with a large die cut sentiment - Bitty Thank You from Concord & 9th. This was cut from Cherry Cobbler card stock and heat embossed before being glued to the plaid.

What do these colours make you think of? Have a look at all the inspiring cards on the CAS Colors and Sketches site and link your card there too!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Allsorts where Ellie is also easing us in with an Anything Goes challenge; I'm also joining in at DiesRUs where Anything Goes (as long as it features a die of a brand the store carries.)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Making this card suddenly reminded me of a pair of pyjamas one of my boys used to wear as a child. I remember him coming downstairs to open his Christmas stocking looking like one of the Darling boys from Peter Pan!

He's quite a lot bigger now of course but still an absolute sweetheart!

Sending hugs,

A red flag

Hello, crafting friends!

Christmas and new year are well and truly over now and all my decorations are down and have been put away for next year. I've got heaps to do this week so I thought I'd get a little crafting in while the going is good!

I've had this Cityscape stamp from Clearly Besotted for a while now but have only ever used it to make Christmas cards. Today I had another idea for it and it's getting an outing as a CAS thank you card. I stamped it directly onto a card base using Stampin' Up Smoky Slate ink. The flag pole was doodled in and I added a tiny scrap of striped designer paper for the flag. The sentiment is from Simply Said Blocks by Uniko, stamped in red, heat embossed with clear embossing powder and snipped out.

CHALLENGES

The red and grey colour palette is from this month's Color Hues challenge; I'm also joining in with Time Out's Life In the City challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Hi ho, hi ho, it's back to work I go today! My (grown up) children are always telling me they can't do anything without hearing my little catch phrases in their heads. 'Zip zip undo me!' when they needed their anoraks taking off when coming in from outside; 'It's feeding time at the zoo!' at mealtimes; 'Let's go up the stairs to Bedfordshire,' at bedtime; 'Let me wipe away your ears,' when mopping up tears; 'Trit trot little pony' or 'Quick sticks!' when we needed to speed up - oh and many, many more! Little do they know I say these things to myself too but I haven't been carted off to the funny farm yet!!

Sending hugs,

Let it Shine!

Hello, crafting friends!

I have another exciting announcement to make! I've been keeping this one under my chapeau for a few months but today I can finally say that I am proud to have been invited to join the fabulous design team at Addicted To CAS - woohooo! If you've been following my blog you'll know that I AM pretty much addicted to the clean and simple style of crafting so this makes me very happy :)

Our first challenge of the year is one you are going to love - Embossing (heat embossing, dry or both) Here's what I came up with:

I adore the branch from MFT's Grateful stamp set and like stamping it as the background to a sentiment. Today though, I heat embossed it in gold directly onto a thick card base. The sentiment is die cut from black card stock, using a new-to-me Avery Elle die called A Tag For All. I pressed it into a Versamark pad and embossed with clear embossing powder for a delicious shine!

While I had the embossing stuff out, I smeared some Versamark over a snippet of red card stock and embossed that with clear embossing powder too before cutting out tiny circles to use as berries.

Do get your embossing folders/powders/boards out and join us! Click here for a whole lot of wonderful inspiration from hostess Barb and the rest of the team, as well as a stunner from Guest Designer Trina. You can use the Linky to enter your card too.

CHALLENGES

Since the sediment (it's infectious Darnell, but in a good way!!) is Never Before Used Schtuff, I'm linking up at January's NBUS challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It's great news on the dog walking front - we have frost! (Only a slight frost but a frost nevertheless!)

There has been so much rain recently that the pups and I have all come back dripping with mud after every outing. Every day I've found myself singing that song from Oh What a Lovely War that goes: 'Up to your waist in water, up to your eyes in slush, using the kind of language that makes the sergeant blush'! Frost means the ground hardens and the mud stays where it's supposed be and I'll definitely take that! 

Sending hugs,