Nautical but nice

Ahoy there, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to a great new challenge at Addicted to CAS! Toni is at the helm for the next couple of weeks with a code word that may leave you all at sea... (I know, I know, I'm really scraping the barrel for these puns!)

Yes, it's the nautical challenge and here's my take:

 

For the background of this masculine birthday card, I used part of a new diamond shaped stencil from Inkylicious, gifted me by a lovely friend. I sponged three different blue-green inks into the stencil for an ombré ocean look, then over-stamped it with some new Lavinia fish, which I was lucky enough to win at Allsorts :)

 

Above my sea, I added some clouds courtesy of Funky Fossil's Scenic Borders stencil. One of the sailboats from Waffleflower's Lighthouse stamp set was stamped on the ocean surface using black ink. I finished with a block sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, a small yellow punched circle and a tiny red enamel dot.

 

Right me hearties, it's your turn to take the oars! Do sail over to the Addicted to CAS challenge blog to check out the team's inspiration and then use the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post to share your own creations with us. We can't wait to see what you come up with!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Darnell's NBUS challenge where we post projects made with our Never Before Used Schtuff; also Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Stenciled Goes; and also Allsorts where the theme is Summer.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Here's another pair having fun in the water:

As you can see, Eva's leg is absolutely fine now! Thank you so much for your well wishes - as you can imagine, we are all very relieved it wasn't anything serious. 

PS. Also, sorry about all the terrible nautical puns today :/

 

Sending hugs,

Birthday surprise!

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Happy Saturday and welcome to another fun challenge at Addicted to CAS! Now, gather round and listen carefully please as Miss Jaydee comes forward to give you the code word for this fortnight!

Isn't that fun?! I decided to make a card featuring kids FOR kids and reached for an older set called Fly With Me by Clearly Besotted. The lego-style kids are designed to be put into the aeroplane in the set but I decided to have them leaping out from behind a birthday banner waving balloons!

I stamped the group of kids first, directly onto a card base, and coloured them with oil-based coloured pencils. The balloons were added by stenciling colour into a stencil made with a small circle punch. The strings were added with a fine-nibbed fineliner pen.

When the kids and their balloons were in place, I positioned Clearly Besotted's Sunny Day stencil over the group and gently sponged pale yellow ink through it to create a fade-out background. The banner is a favourite from Sugar Rush by Winnie and Walter (sadly no longer trading.) After stamping it, adding the sentiment and snipping it out, I added it to the card front using dimensional pads.

So now it's your turn! What does the word Kids inspire you to make? We can't wait to see! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS challenge site to check out the team's ideas. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to share your own creation with us. Don't forget to keep your card clean and simple with plenty of nice clear space!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Addicted to Stamps and More where Birthdays is the latest challenge.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

A heatwave is sweeping the UK so we've been spending a lot of time on the river walks.

I leave you with a rare sighting of the Golden Hippo!

Sending hugs,

Nautical or nice?

Ahoy there, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to a great new challenge at Addicted to CAS! Toni is at the helm for the next couple of weeks with a code word that may leave you all at sea... (I know, I know, I'm really scraping the barrel for these puns!)

Yes, it's the nautical challenge and here's my take:

 

For the background of this masculine birthday card, I used part of a new diamond shaped stencil from Inkylicious, gifted me by a lovely friend. I sponged three different blue-green inks into the stencil for an ombré ocean look, then over-stamped it with some new Lavinia fish, which I was lucky enough to win at Allsorts :)

 

Above my sea, I added some clouds courtesy of Funky Fossil's Scenic Borders stencil. One of the sailboats from Waffleflower's Lighthouse stamp set was stamped on the ocean surface using black ink. I finished with a block sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, a small yellow punched circle and a tiny red enamel dot.

 

Right me hearties, it's your turn to take the oars! Do sail over to the Addicted to CAS challenge blog to check out the team's inspiration and then use the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post to share your own creations with us. We can't wait to see what you come up with!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Darnell's NBUS challenge; also Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge; and also Allsorts where the theme is Summer.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Here's another pair having fun in the water:

As you can see, Eva's leg is absolutely fine now! Thank you so much for your well wishes - as you can imagine, we are all very relieved it wasn't anything serious. 

PS. Also, sorry about all the terrible nautical puns today :/

 

Sending hugs,

Aim high little guy!

Hello, crafting friends!

Happy Saturday and welcome to another fun challenge at Addicted to CAS. Fran is our hostess for the next two weeks and she has chosen a fun code word:

She has also found the gap in my stash! I don't have any bug stamps unless bees count - do they? The loosest definition is 'an insect or creature that resembles an insect' so I guess bees DO count! But I went in a different direction.

To set the scene, I used two sticky notes to form blades of grass and sponged green ink into them. I added additional background grass by sponging the ink into the grass on Funky Fossil's Scenic Borders stencil. I know I do this a lot, but I make no apology for adding a burst of sunshine courtesy of Clearly Besotted's Sunny Day stencil - after all, we need as much sunshine as possible in our lives!

The ladybird was a punched circle of red card stock. I cut part of it away and added a black head and spots with a fineliner pen - simple! I had my bug trundling up the tallest blade of grass and added an ancient Stampin' Up sentiment which I thought was appropriate. I trimmed my panel out with my favourite Heffy Doodle stitched rectangle die before attaching it to a card base.

And now it's your turn! We would be so happy to see your clean and simple bug cards filling up our gallery! The team has produced its usual amazing inspiration, so hop over to the Addicted to CAS challenge blog to take a look and to link up your own CAS creation via the Linky Tool there.

CHALLENGES

Time Out's latest challenge is Move and although my little bug is not a very fast mover, you can see that he is trundling his way to the top! There's some sad news from Time Out: My lovely bloggy pal Sandie, who has run the challenge so brilliantly for 7 years, is having to step down for health reasons. You can read her farewell message on the blog and I'm sure she would appreciate you leaving a message of support. 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Today's card reminds me of a time when I was a girl, helping my father bring sheep into the farmyard from the far fields. We were all assigned a place to stand along the way, so that we could head the sheep into the lane as they came past. M field was quite near the farm so I had quite a wait on my own. It was a lovely warm sunny day and I lay back in the grass. I have never forgotten that moment as I became super aware of everything going on: the sun on my skin, the buzzing of insects in the grass, the rustle of a breeze in the trees, a burst of bird song - the first time I had really understood what a miracle all of nature really is.

Do you remember having a moment like that?

Sending hugs,