Neighbourly greetings

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to a brand new challenge at Addicted to CAS! Nancy has taken the reins into her capable hands this fortnight and look at the prompt word she has chosen to inspire you:

The world is your oyster on this one!

I've gone for a Christmas card, using inky stripes to represent snow. I masked off each stripe as I went along, sponging the same pale blue ink each time, just using less pressure each time to get the ombré look.

The house and sentiment are from a retired Stamping Up stamp set called From Our House To Yours. I stamped one of the houses, snipped it out and popped it up on my stripey snow using dimensional pads. The sentiment and chimney smoke are from the same set and were stamped directly onto the card base.

 

Okay, now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS challenge blog and admire all the different ways the team has showcased stripes. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to share your own creation. We can't wait to see what you come up with!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking my card up at Happy Little Stampers Christmas challenge where Anything Goes with an optional theme of House; I'm also playing along at the Christmas Kickstart challenge, where Jo and her Elf Arlene are making mini-slimline cards; my colours were inspired by Christmas Craft Creations where the challenge is to Use Two Colours; Retro Rubber's Anything Goes challenge requires us to use stamps older than a year (the set I used was released Dec 2019); and last but not least, I'm linking up with Rudolph Days where we make a Christmas card on 25th of each month (bit late, but we have until the end of the month to enter.)

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I have no idea why I decided to make a Christmas card during a hot sunny day but there we have it! Eva has been sunning herself in the garden and when I went outside to take a photo, she had tucked herself in a nice shady corner...

... which makes it look as if she has learned how to levitate! She IS a very clever girl but I won't be renting her out to a magician any time soon!

PS She is wearing the expression on her face that I call 'looking at me with her nose'!!

Sending hugs,

Happiness is...

Hello, crafting friends!

Sometimes a card challenge really sends you off down a rabbit hole! I am just emerging from the one Time Out has sent me down with its challenge of 'Create a card inspired by the word 'You'. It was very therapeutic, got me thinking and I definitely recommend you try it!

The first thing I did was write down the things that are important to me. I decided on:

1. Family and home 

2. Friends and activities that bring me joy

And here we are! The background represents nature in my preferred summer form - blue skies, flower-studded grass, trees, birds. I'm so grateful that I'm able to go out walking in nature every day and in the summer I spend time in my tiny garden. The strip of striped paper is to represent colour, which I love. In the centre I've placed the house, decorated with a heart, which represents my beloved family and home. Around that are my other passions - arts and crafts, books and dogs. The dog in the foreground is Eva (only with pointy ears!) and although of course she is part of my family, she is here representing all the other dogs I love too, the ones I walk and look after. All these activities have brought me the loveliest friends - including lots of crafters here in blogland!

The strips of designer papers are from Stampin' Up and the easel is cut from a snippet of SU paper. The house and tree are from retired SU sets (From Our House to Yours and Sheltering Tree respectively.) The sentiment is from Waffle Flower's Books and Coffee, as is the pile of books, coloured with alcohol markers and fussy cut. The adorable dog is from Clearly Besotted's Holiday Huskies.

I arranged my images collage-style and once they were glued down, trimmed the panel with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle before adding it to the card base. I hope you like this card and are inspired to join in with a card that illustrates you. I'm going to enjoy finding out a little bit more about my crafting pals!

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

I was thrilled to see that this card was the Emerald Winner at Color My Heart Color Dare and  that it got an honourable mention at Time Out!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up this card with Time Out Challenges with its theme of You; I used the colours from Color My Heart Color Dare challenge 427 (Smoothie, Glacier and Sage with extra Canary.)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

A frost happened in the middle of the mud fest! Here's a young lady that was very excited to see the frosty grass and got straight down to making puppy dog frost angels!

Sending  hugs, 

To absent friends at Christmas

Hello, crafting friends!

This year, there is a possibility that some people will be missing the usual crowd at Christmas, and a toast to absent friends and family was the idea behind today's card.

I started by masking the bottom off a card panel and sponging soft pink ink through Funky Fossil's Funky Circle stencil, fading it out towards the edges. The mask was swapped to the top of the card panel and I sponged the same ink across the bottom to create a 'ground'. The panel was trimmed with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle and mounted on dark pink card stock.

The glasses and bubbles from Clearly Besotted's Raise a Glass were stamped onto the background and I added colour with alcohol markers. The finishing touches were a bow from WPlus9's Silver Bells on one of the glasses, shimmer on the drinks courtesy of a Wink of Stella pen and some gems.

CHALLENGES

Every year in October, Stephanie and Lauren from Jingle Belles raise money for breast cancer research by donating $2 for every card linked up to their Pink Christmas Card challenge so I'm linking up there. I'm also joining in with The Christmas Kickstart Challenge where the theme is also Pink Christmas.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva is, I'm glad to say, on the mend and is getting lots of TLC. She did suggest that extra snacking might be an effective convalescent treatment but I vetoed that idea firmly. She might have become a little gloomy after that but luckily she found the clean laundry and made an interesting arrangement of socks up the stairs which cheered her up no end!

Sending hugs, 

Experimenting with trees

Hello, crafting friends!

Well, I have had fun in The Craft Square Metre today! I took a small tree from a Christmas stamp set and had a good old play with it in a couple of non-festive ways! 

The set I found the tree in was Stampin' Up's From Our House To Yours. In the first card I stamped it on a smooshed background and in the second card I used it as part of a stamped autumnal border. 

CARD ONE

Here's the first.

I dripped inks in various purples onto some cling wrap, spritzed it with water and placed a card panel into the result. Once the panel was dry, I masked off a horizontal line and watercoloured in a ground. Once THAT was dry, I masked off the ground and repeat-stamped the tree in dark purple, varying the heights. A matching purple marker was used to fill in any gaps.

The most interesting part of the panel was trimmed using a tall, thin stitched rectangle die by Christina Griffiths. To represent the moon, I punched a small hole in the sky and filled it with the same-sized circle punched out of shiny card stock, taped at the back to secure. I added stars with a white gel pen and stamped the sentiment (from Stampin'Up's Today's Tiles) in dark purple ink. The panel was attached to a card base with dimensionals.

CARD TWO

For the second card, I tried using the tree as twiggy branches in a leafy border. I think it works!

The foliage and berries mostly come from WPlus9's Silver Bells but I also used a leaf that was out on my desk from Reverse Confetti's Fall Foliage. I tried the stamping out on scrap paper first and then copied the design carefully onto a card panel. 

For the sentiment, I cut a strip of card stock and trimmed it top and bottom with a stitched rectangle die. The bold sentiment is from WPlus9's Hello and Thanks, stamped in dark brown ink. I thought I had stamped my borders so carefully but when I put the card together, I noticed a red blob on my pristine white card... that's why there are lots of gems on this card!!!

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

So happy that the twiggy autumnal card was chosen as a Weekly Winner at CAS Colours and Sketches!

And that both cards were Honourably Mentioned at The Twofer Challenge!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking both cards up with The Twofer Challenge where the theme this month is Trees, and we are asked to use the same stamp/die/stencil, on two different designs, for two different occasions.

I'm also entering Card One into this month Stamping Sensations challenge where the theme is Great Outdoors; and also joining in at Less is More's Shades of Purple colour challenge.

Card Two was made with those amazing colours at CAS Colours and Sketches (my second entry!) and I'm also linking it up at Just Add Ink where the challenge is to Just Add 'A'. My 'A' is autumn of course!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Forgive the rubbish photo but it really does sum up our weekend...

Yep! This weekend we have mostly been cavorting about the countryside in the sunshine :) How about you?

Hugs,

Raising a glass to friends

Hello, crafting friends!

Never mind whelmed, I have been overwhelmed-and-a-half by the chaos that my inbox has become all of a sudden! It was that week off that did it :/ Anyway, while clearing it out I found a few challenges that are about to end. Yep, THAT's why I miss so many challenge deadlines!

This is a very quick and simple card which enabled me to use up some annoyingly small snippets of card stock - hooray! I started by masking off the bottom of a thick card base with a sticky note and sponging a little ink upwards to create a 'ground'.

Next came the die cutting: I used an MFT set called Birthday Cocktail, cutting the glass once out of vellum and then again out of grey card stock, and the bow out of a bright pink scrap. The drink was coloured on the back of the vellum glass with a marker, and I gave it some sparkle on the front with a Wink of Stella pen.

The glass was assembled using thin smears of glue. I attached it to the card base and added a sentiment from Stampin' Up's From Our House To Yours using grey and pink inks. I stamped tiny hearts from the same set onto the tag from the die set and added it to the glass, but I didn't like the look, so I added interest with some gems instead.

CHALLENGES
I'm joining in with The Snippets Playground  - the only thing that wasn't a snippet was the card base and even the gems were rescued from a card that was being recycled! I'm also playing along at AAA Cards where the main theme is Made in Minutes, and coming back for a second entry at Festive Friday, where I've chosen Friendship sentiment, Sparkle and Die cuts from the inspiration list. I hope I'm also in time to link up with Less is More's Fuchsia, Yellow and Grey colour theme.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
This card is dedicated to all my lovely crafting friends. I really do appreciate you - the people in my life that understand what I mean when I'm consumed with excitement about a new stamp set or accidentally discovering a new colour palette! Thank you for coming to visit and cheering me up with your comments; and thank you for always being there when I pop round to yours.

I raise my glass to you all (or I would do but Eva seems to be in charge of it!)

Cheers!

Hello from Nellie!

Hello crafting pals!

I don't know what happened today but I made a card so unlike my usual style that I'm wondering if someone came into the Crafting Square Metre, clocked me over the head with my Big Shot and had a crafting session while I was out for the count! Come and see:

See what I mean?! Little Nellie is a bit of a sweetheart isn't she? MFT's Safari Party was out on my desk so I understand how she appeared. She has been stamped, coloured with alcohol markers and fussy cut...

And she's wandering about on a cardbase that has been divided by a black line, masked off and sponged with distress ink before over-stamping with a leaf image from Stampin' Up's Soft Spring (also out on my desk!)

There's a panel on top made from a cloud patterned designer paper, cut out with a Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle die. It has been topped with a piece of white card stock, cut with the same die and trimmed at the top with one of the Puffy Cloud Border dies from Lawn Fawn. This has been divided with a black line, like the card base, masked and sponged, but left unstamped.

The card has been finished with an long ago retired Stampin' Up sentiment, a little bow to decorate Nellie's tail and a tiny heart stamped above her trunk :)

EDITED TO ADD SOME AWARDS
I was so thrilled that this card won Designers Choice at Tic Tac Toe!

And that it was a winner at CAS Colours and Sketches! Woohoo!

CHALLENGES
I'm linking this card up at The Paper Players where it's a Soft Sky, So Saffron and grey colour challenge. (I actually bought the stamp set to play along with LeAnne's zoo party challenge last week but it didn't arrive in time!) I'm also joining in with the sketch at this week's CAS Colours and Sketches challenge. And last, but not least, I'm playing along with the Tic Tac Toe Challenge, where I chose the Tilted, Stitched and Blue line of the tic tac toe board.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Let me show you some real cuteness:

I took this photo yesterday when my youngest son came in from walking Eva. When she comes back from a walk she nudges our lead-holding hands as if to say "I can take that if you like!" When we give it to her, she is as proud as anything to be doing this job and trots along beside us with it in her mouth. She doesn't let go until we get inside and produce a treat for her!

Thanks for visiting me today.

Be safe,

Speaking without words

Hello crafting friends!

I'm back with another card that I made for this week's Less Is More Challenge where I'm *draws self up proudly* Guest Designing for this fortnight! It's the dreaded one layer card this fortnight and the twist is No Sentiment!

While I was thinking about this, my golden retriever pal Eva came up to me to ask me if I could let her out please, and I had an 'aha' moment! No-one communicates without words better than a dog!

I started the card by stamping a bush for my dog to sit behind, using Sheltering Tree by Stampin' Up (retired.) Using my stamping platform, I stamped the leaves in green, cleaned the stamp without removing it, inked up with Versamark, stamped again, then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  I was then able to stamp the twiggy parts of my bush and then wipe the embossing clean.

Next came the dog. I don't have any dog stamps (but I would LOVE some if you have any recommendations!) I do have a Stampin' Up dog punch though and was able to make a stencil out of it.

I sponged distress ink through the stencil, ran a marker around it to make an outline and added features - isn't he cute?! He can see his owner coming and look - she's carrying a BALL!!!
He needed grass to run on and a lovely blue sky, so I masked him off with the punched dog and, using a straight piece of scrap paper for the horizontal, sponged them in.

Finally, I used another Stampin' Up set, From Our House To Yours, to stamp a collar and the hearts, used silver liquid pearls to add a name tag. I rounded the bottom corners of the card too, to add extra interest.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
So proud this card was show-cased at Less is More! And received an Honourable Mention at Just Add Ink!

CHALLENGES
As well as Less is More I'm linking up with  Cards 4 Guyz, where the challenge is to Use A Stencil on a masculine card, and Allsorts, where the theme is Men and/or Boys. I'm also joining in with this week's 'Just Add E' challenge at Just Add Ink - my 'E' is embossing.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Not everyone is losing sleep over the Coronavirus situation:

There may or may not have been a 'chasing some ducks across a river' incident before this photo was taken...!

I hope you are keeping safe and well.

Hugs,