Fashionably Late

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Thursday and time for another fun board at the Tic Tac Toe challenge! I put together the board this week and have crammed it with all my favourite items - and I hope you'll love them too!

 

For my simple card, I went with the top row: CAS/Bright Colours/Butterfly - but I also added Birthday, Flowers, Die Cut and Leaves for good measure! No Sequins or Stripes but hey, I didn't want to over-egg the pudding!

The butterfly and flowers are from a beautiful Mama Elephant set called Butterfly Kisses. I stamped them onto a card panel using a pale green ink and coloured them with alcohol markers. The panel was trimmed to size with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle.

I added some details with a black fineliner pen and a fun sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Simply Stamped before mounting the panel onto a card base.

So now it's your turn! Which row or column are you going to choose? Or will you opt for one of the diagonals? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge site to admire the amazing samples my teamies and our wonderful guest designer Tara have made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to share your own creation with us. We can't wait to see what you make this week!

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with We Love Stamping where Anything Goes with the option of Hot Sunny Colours; also Stamping Sensations, where the theme is Summer Flowers; and also The Flower Challenge where the theme is Clean and Simple.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

My knee is now back to normal and I'd like to say a big thank you for your get well wishes! It was really painful but the worst thing was moving about like a 100 year old woman - and I do have a few years before that's supposed to happen! Unfortunately, I passed the baton to Eva who has now hurt her leg, poor love. She is having to rest it which is really hard because we have one of her pals, Murphy, staying with us, and of course all they want to do is play! The toys have been put away and I'm giving them extra cuddles instead. Murphy has to be walked by himself...

... although, to be fair, he seems to be having a reasonably good time!!

Sending hugs,

Passiflora on stripes

Hello, crafting friends!

It's Tuesday and that means it's time for another refreshing challenge from CAS Colours and Sketches! October is my hosting month which means I get to choose a colour palette today.

This is a favourite autumn colour scheme of mine although of course it can also be used for festive cards or any other kind of occasion! I used it to make a card to cheer up a friend who is going through a tough time.

I started by stamping the striped background from Uniko, using my stamping platform to get a good clear impression from the navy ink.

Next I stamped the floral elements and fussy cut them (madness I know - there are dies for saner crafters!) For extra detail, I pulled a little of the Razzleberry ink into the petals with a damp paintbrush. Then I set my botanicals aside while I dealt with the sentiment.

I used a pretty 'you are in my thoughts' from Mama Elephant, using my stamping platform again and two colours of ink. Finally, the flowers, leaves and bud were arranged over the stripes.

Okay, so now it's your turn! Do hop over to the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge site to check out the beautiful inspiration from the design team. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to link up your own creation. I'm looking forward to a gorgeous gallery this week!

PS If you love this challenge, you may be interested to know there's a Design Team Call going on! Check out the details on the site!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with The Flower Challenge where the theme is Use a Shape (my shape is the rectangular background made up of rectangular stripes.) This challenge is also celebrating its 5th birthday - so congratulations are in order *pop goes the champagne cork* I'm also joining in at Darnell's NBUS Challenge which is the place to share your Never Before Used Schtuff. The background and the flowers are new-to-me stamps from Uniko :)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva has a new pal staying over. He reminds me of a child at Playgroup who was unusually tall for his age; I remember his mum telling me in despair that everyone expected him to behave like an older child because of that. At only 8 months this pup is the same size as Eva and into everything! I have been firm but fair and he is learning the ropes very quickly, but I'm afraid I made a rookie error last night. I dropped a roast potato on the floor while serving dinner and although I retrieved it quickly, I foolishly put it at the back of the kitchen counter while I took dinner to the table. When I came back it had gone and he was looking as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth - although I suspect a roast potato just had!!

Sending hugs,

Celebrate in nature

Hello, crafting friends!

Happy Saturday and welcome to another fun challenge at Addicted to CAS! Toni is our host for the next two weeks and I love the code word she has chosen - and I think you will too :)

Yes, it's another excuse to get our nature themed stamps and dies out, as if we need any encouragement!

I masked the bottom and edges of a nice thick card base and stamped a gorgeous Queen Anne's Lace image from Funky Fossil off the bottom edge. I added some watercolour detail for the background and allowed it to dry.

When it was completely dry, I removed the masks, stamped a birthday sentiment from Pinkfresh Studios and added flowers to the plants with a Posca white acrylic paint pen. I finished the card with three blue butterflies from Butterfly Kisses by Mama Elephant and added a little shading with coloured pencils.

Right, now it's your turn! There's heaps of inspiration from my team mates on the Addicted to CAS blog and you'll find the Linky Tool there too so that you can link up your own creation. Remember that we are a clean and simple challenge won't you, so don't forget to leave that all-important clear space.

CHALLENGES

I’m linking this card up at Just Add Ink where the theme is 'Just Add N' and my N is for Nature; also Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge where Anything Goes using watercolouring techniques.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I love Queen Anne’s lace, although you never know what you might find lurking in there...

Aargh! It’s the Beige Beast!!!

Sending hugs,

Butterflies, blossoms and birthdays

Hello, crafting friends!

Mr Mojo poked his head round the door today and I thought I'd take advantage! Come and see:

I've delved into my box of as yet unused goodies for this card, stamping the flower and two of the butterflies from Mama Elephant's Butterfly Kisses onto a card panel. I coloured them with coloured pencils then masked them off while I created the background.

The background was made by diluting blue ink with water and sponging it all over the panel. When it was dry, I trimmed the panel with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle and stamped the 'happy birthday' from Pinkfresh Studio's Perfect Sentiments. That was then masked too, with a piece of sticky note, while I clapped wet hands over the panel.

The final stage was removing just the flower mask and adding splatters with diluted green ink. When that had dried, I removed all the rest of the masks and attached my panel to a card base.

CHALLENGES

I was inspired by the beautiful photo over at Give a Crafter a Cookie so I'm linking up there; I'm also joining in with the CAS Mix Up challenge where Viv has chosen the theme of Flight, with Watercolouring being the main element; The theme at Allsorts this week is Butterflies and Bugs, so I shall link up there too; and I hadn't used either of the stamp sets before so I'm also sharing at Darnell's NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) Challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The weather is about to break so I've been scuttling about doing all the jobs that need doing before it rains - trimming hedges and so on. We will all sleep better tonight - especially the furriest of us!

Source: Pinterest

This image of a golden retriever (not Eva) enjoying the rain made me smile when I came across it the other day. This is exactly what Eva would do if it poured with rain after a long hot spell!

Sending hugs,