Hearty Birthday wishes

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Saturday and if you're looking for a little crafting inspiration, Toni has chosen a brand new word prompt for you at Addicted to CAS:

 

 

If I'm honest, Toni's word choice made me think of my ever-growing craft wish list but I put that firmly to one side and came up with a cute feminine birthday card instead! I pulled out some bits and pieces from my snippets box and had a little think about what stamps to use with them, and here's what I came up with:

 

The die cut stitched rectangle was a left-over from making a frame. I masked off an area for a sentiment and stamped a pinstripe from Uniko in yellow ink. In the white space revealed when removing the mask, I stamped a lovely wish sentiment from Altenew using a dark coral ink. Towards the top of the rectangle, I added the birthday girl sentiment directly on the pinstripe. For extra interest, I stamped the line of hearts from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks at the top and bottom.

Now for the cake! I reached for my favourite cupcake stamp from Sugar Rush by Walter & Winnie (sadly no longer trading.) I stamped the cupcake, adding the patterned cake case and a candle, and fussy cutting the whole thing as a single item. After colouring in the icing and the candle, the cupcake was decorated with a diecut flower and leaves and popped up on dimensional pads. Finally, the rectangle was glued to a card base.

Okay, now its your turn! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS challenge blog to check out all the wonderful inspiration from my team mates. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to share your own creation when you're ready. Remember, we are a clean and simple challenge so make sure your card has minimal layers and plenty of clear space. We can't wait to see what you come up with!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Seize The Birthday where the Optional Topping is Circles but I've gone for the Anything Goes option; also Happy Little Stampers Birthday where Anything Goes.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

So I'm back from my daughter's wedding where the sun shone and everything went pretty much according to plan. I say 'pretty much' because Eva, who was supposed to remain virtuously in the farmhouse kitchen, managed to persuade someone to let her out by the power of her big brown eyes and set off to find us all assembling for lunch in the marquee! My two sons, who know all her tricks, rounded her up efficiently before anything untoward happened, and when the food was removed she was allowed to come and join in with the celebrations :)

Sending hugs,

Pastel recovery

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to another Thursday full of Tic Tac Toe Challenge fun! I fell head over heels with the board Felicita created this week:

 

 

Spring - yay! I couldn't wait to crack open those pastel inks so I opted for the middle column Bold Sentiment/Free/Pastel Colours and made a get well card.

 

I used a Uniko stamp set called Just Because which features a fabulous silhouette plant. Using a stamping platform to get good ink coverage of the solid image, I stamped the image all over a card base. I used pastel inks and varied the position and angle and colour each time I stamped.

 

Over the top of the card base I created a dimensional sentiment layer using stitched circle and stitched rectangle dies. I stamped the top layer with Uniko's Pinstripe background stamp and added a bold sentiment from The Colorado Company. I finished with different sizes of lovely shiny enamel dots - my favourite embellishments!

 

Okay, so now it's your turn! Which colomn or row will you choose from the board? Or will you opt for one of the diagonals? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge blog and check out the inspiration from the design team. 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 how you were inspired!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Allsorts where I've taken the Anything Goes option; also Little Red Wagon where Chrissy wants to see us use our die cuts - my sentiment uses a rectangle and a circle die.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It was so much fun to use spring colours on today's project and I'm enjoying seeing the bulbs coming into flower in the garden. It's still pretty chilly though and while I tend to tuck a throw over my knees if I'm sitting for a while, the pups have a much better way to stay warm!

 

Nothing like a rousing game of tug for raising the temperatures! Poor old Lion Friend has seen better days but they seem to prefer the old toys for tug (thank goodness!)

Sending hugs,

Rose Gold

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's lovely to be back with the Tic Tac Toe Challenge today. Betty has come up with this fun board to spark your creativity:

 

 

I'm obviously missing the Christmas sparkle, so I chose the middle row, Floral/Free/Sparkle, to make a feminine birthday card full of shimmer and shine!

 

 

I started by stamping Uniko's Pin Stripe background directly onto a thick card base and heat embossing with gold embossing powder. I topped it with a piece of gold glimmer paper, trimmed to the same width but half the height, with the bottom corners curved with a corner rounder. The roses, from WPlus9's Modern Roses stamp set, were stamped, coloured with pink coloured pencils and fussy cut.

 

The card was put together collage-style, with a gold-embossed sentiment label from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, and some pale pink sequins for even more sparkle!

So now it's over to you! What column or row grabs your attention this week? Or will you opt for one of the diagonals? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge site and take a look at my team mates' wonderful samples. 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!

CHALLENGES

I was inspired by the colours at Color Hues so I'm linking up there; I'm also joining in at Stamping Sensations where the challenge is to Add Sparkle.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Not only has the river burst its banks but it has continued to rain and today I couldn't get to our favourite spot by the river. I popped the dogs back in the Dogmobile and drove to a different access point further up river, but it was all flooded up there too. So I took the dogs on a walk across the higher fields that is usually quite boring; not today though!

 

 

The walk was transformed by streams and pools that had formed and Eva and Murph the spaniel ran and swam and chased each other and careered about like kids on a day out at Waterworld!! Can you see the joy on my water baby's face?!

Sending hugs,

Singing in the rain

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another fun challenge at Addicted to CAS! This week Raga is our host and she's obviously thinking of the garden with her code word!

I am a dog walker and rainy is not my favourite weather to walk in as it tends to go hand in glove with mud! But if you have to be out in the rain, you may as well cheer things up with some dotty accessories...

... like these cheerful yellow wellies and orange brolly from Stampin' Up's Under My Umbrella. They have have been paper-pieced with snippets of bright dotty paper. I positioned them on a die cut circle, stamped with Uniko's Pinstripe background to suggest rain.

The sentiment is from Paper Smooches' Sunny Side Up and is stamped in a nice cheery red.

Are you ready to have some fun with our code word? Be sure to check out all the fab inspiration from the team, and from our special guest Arlene, at the Addicted to CAS website won't you! You'll find the Linky Tool there too so that you can share your creation. Remember we are a clean and simple challenge so make sure your card features minimal layers and plenty of lovely clean space!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Inkspirational where the theme is Spots/Dots; I'm also joining in at The Snippets Playground where the goal is to make cards using scraps and lefty overs.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

When I was making today's card I was thinking about my  youngest son who was given a raincoat and wellies with a duck theme when he was maybe two or three years old. He adored them and wore them whether it was raining or not! Just the sight of him wearing them was enough to cheer me up on a rainy day :)

I got so nostalgic I had to look them up to see if they were still available. And yes, they are! The raincoat on the left is sold by Regatta and the wellies on the right are from Boden. Aren't they adorable?!

Sending hugs,