Seriously in love

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Thursday and time for another blast of inspiration via the Tic Tac Toe Challenge! Come and see the fab board Felicita has devised for your crafting pleasure this week:

 

Isn't that a great selection of suggestions?! I chose the left hand column to make a CAS valentine - Red/Heart/Sentiment.

The first thing I did was splodge diluted ink all over a piece of card stock using light and dark reds and a pink. While that was drying, I stamped Uniko's Background Blocks Arts Decoratifs onto a kraft card base using red ink and coloured it with light and dark red coloured pencils.

 

When the watercoloured panel was dry, I die cut a heart out of it and stamped it with a fun sentiment from a retired Stampin Up set. To finish the card I attached the heart to the background and added a few enamel dots. How simple was that?!

So now it's your turn! Which line of the board will you choose? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge site and check out the fabulous inspiration from my talented team mates. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to link up your own creation when you're ready. Have fun!

 

CHALLENGES

I'm playing along with Double D Challenges' Hearts challenge - if you're making some last-minute valentines this weekend, check out their gorgeous mood board! I'm also joining in at Little Red Wagon where Chrissy wants to see our valentines and love projects; and Cardz 4 Guyz where Pamela's theme is Love Cards - for guys of course!

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I've had a humdinger of a day. I'd just finished a dog walk and returned to my car to find a flat tyre. Luckily the owner of the other dog I was walking had come with us today so I didn't have a car full of anxious dogs - just Eva who hates anything out of the ordinary :/ I phoned OH as he was only up the road and he came and efficiently changed the tyre but, as I was driving away, I became aware of a horrible noise under the car. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the car has had to be towed to a local garage and is being looked at as I type. Please send positive thoughts my way!

I'm at home now and have been pressing this bell for ages...

 

... but I think it must be faulty!!

Sending hugs,

You'd better shape up!

Hello, crafting friends!

Happy Saturday and welcome to a brand new challenge at Addicted to CAS. Raga has chosen a fun code word for the next two weeks:

There are SO many different ways to go on this one! I immediately thought of using a favourite Uniko stamp, Background Blocks Arts Décoratif, and have made a masculine birthday card with it.

This stamp is more than capable of carrying a card on its own! I stamped it directly onto a card base, using Memento black ink, and coloured the shapes with coloured pencils, using soft natural hues. The sentiment is from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, stamped and snipped out. I added one grey enamel dot to contrast with all those angular lines.

So now it's your turn! Pop over to the Addicted to CAS blog where you will be blown away by the inspiration from the rest of the team and from our special guest Elaine Place. You can link up your card there too when you're ready - but don't forget to keep your card nice and CAS!

CHALLENGES

I've used the beautiful soft colours at The Color Throwdown challenge and am also linking up at Make My Monday where the theme is Masculine Birthday.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm well known for my exaggerations in my family - "It's absolutely filthy" is likely to mean there's a slight mark on it for example, or "You must be pretty well starving" translates to "You've only had three sandwiches and a few cakes." I was in the kitchen putting the shopping away yesterday evening while my eldest son was preparing himself a snack, and I looked at the clock. "Good grief, it's 9 o'clock!" I said. "How did that happen?!" My son gave me a sideways look. " I know," he said. "It's practically midnight!"

Sending hugs,

Pattern for a male birthday

Hello crafting friends!

I went away to Norfolk for the weekend and came back to find a little packet of stamps waiting for me! I looked at the suitcase that needing unpacking, the laundry that needed washing, the housework that needed catching up with... and naturally I opened the package and just ever so quickly made a card! Come and see:

There's been a new release at Uniko and I was particularly excited about a new background block stamp called Arts Décoratifs. Here, I've stamped it at an angle off the bottom of a card panel in black, heat embossed it and coloured inside the lines with alcohol markers.

I chose a simple birthday sentiment from Altenew's Birthday Greetings, stamping it along one edge and heat embossing. Black embossing powder and I don't get along very well, so I used my stamping platform to stamp with Memento black ink, cleaned the stamp while in situ, inked it up with versamark and stamped over the black, then embossing with clear embossing powder.

What do you think? It reminds me of a stained glass panel with leading separating the coloured glass but I think it works well for a male card.

CHALLENGES
Embossing is the theme of two current challenges - The Male Room, who want masculine cards using any kind of embossing, and The Paper Players, who want to see heat embossing on our projects. I'm also linking my card up with Perfectly CAS where the theme is shapes using no more than a third of a card front; and Inspired By, where I became very excited by the colours on the inspiration photo!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I very rarely go away as Eva is unable to travel any distance without distress, but oh what a welcome home! She brought me a sock as a present and tried very hard not to jump although I could see she wanted to. I got down to her level and she gave me little kisses, making adorable little hen noises at the same time, and paddling excitedly with her front paws!

Do you have a pet that gives you a first class welcome home?

Hugs,