A purrfect birthday

Hello, crafting friends!

Happy Saturday! And it's a very happy Saturday today because it's time for a new challenge at Addicted to CAS! Let's have a look at the code word for the next two weeks:

So plenty of scope there. Think of all the animals out there big or small, wild or domesticated! I've chosen a cat (much to my golden retriever's outrage!)

Cats love the sunshine don't they, so I positioned Clearly Besotted's Sunny Day stencil over the corner of a thick card base and sponged yellow ink into it.  I gave my cat a nice lawn by masking the top of the card off with a piece of scrap paper and sponging a green ground over the bottom of the card.

Then came the fun! I chose a cat from Funky Fossil's Cat Silhouettes and positioned it on my ground. I sponged black ink into it and added detail with a black coloured pencil. I thought my cat would enjoy a garden, so I used markers to ink up a floral stamp from Stampin' Up's Corner Bouquet and stamped flowers in the foreground. The card was finished with a sentiment from Clearly Besotted's On Your Day

Okay, it's over to you now! We would love to see your CAS creations. The team has some fabulous cards to show you, and we also have the wonderful Jen Mitchell as our special guest, so hop on over to the Addicted to CAS blog and prepare to be inspired! 

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with the birthday celebrations at Time Out Challenges with this card. Congratulations to their lovely team on seven years of inspiring us all to get creative! I'm also linking up with Seize The Birthday where Lindsey has chosen Make A Scene as the Topping :)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Spring has sprung here (at least for a few days!) and I've been tidying up the garden and clearing the weeds that always seem to spring up at the side of the house where the footpath goes. That's a public area and cars drive past, so I can't let Eva just join in as she does in the garden. She really wants to be where the action is though, so I use a double length lead which I fasten around my waist so she can 'help' me but won't stray far from my side.

Here's a photo of some early spring gorgeousness! These crocuses are the palest mauve which look stunning mixed with the bold yellow celandine - but of course the star of the show is Princess Eva with her happy smile! (I'm just trying to distract her from the cat card!!)

Sending hugs,

The colours of a winter morning

Hello, crafting friends!

Fancy a little colour inspiration? Well it's time for a colour challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches and I can't wait to see what you make of them! Julie is our host this month and she has come up with this gorgeous combination:

It reminded me of a morning sky and prompted me to create a watercolour blend with the blue and pink.

TIP: When making a watercolour blended background, paint the area of the watercolour paper you want to colour with clear water to start with. When you paint your ink over the water, it will stay in the wet area.

Once my background had dried, I inked up a stamp from Corner Bouquet by Stampin' Up with my grey and stamped the image in the corner.

To finish my card I added a Clearly Besotted sentiment and added a few sequins.

Are you ready to join in? Hop over to the CAS Colours & Sketches challenge blog to see my teamies' fabulous samples and inspiration from special Guest Designer Valérie too. When you've created your card, you can link up there too - but remember, we are a CAS challenge so we like to see plenty of clear space and minimal layers!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking my card up with Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge where Anything Goes; I'm also joining in with Just Add Ink where the challenge is to Just Add A Blended Background.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

So it's Shrove Tuesday today (also known as Mardi Gras.) Apparently people all over Britain like to indulge in pancake racing, where they run races with a frying pan in their hands, flipping a pancake as they run! I can tell you that I have never in my life seen a pancake race and of course this year is unlikely to be the year I do! On the other hand, I've seen lots of people eating pancakes with every sign of enjoyment and look forward to indulging in a spot that myself later on today!

Sending hugs,