Room with a view

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Thank you to all of you that joined in with our last challenge at Addicted to CAS. We are always amazed at your creativity! Today there's another fun word prompt, this time chosen by moi!

 

I didn't have a clue what I was going to make when I chose this word but I was looking in my NBUS box the other day and found a Spellbinders window die that I had bought in a thrift shop on holiday a couple of years ago. Here's what I made with it:

 

It was the simplest card to make! I cut the window out of a snippet of white card and used the negative to trace the arch shape over a holiday advertisement in an old magazine. This was cut out with scissors and glued to the back of the window die.

 

I found a sentiment that fit the width of the window and stamped it in a blue ink that coordinated with the scene. The window was glued to a card base and finished with two enamel dots to represent the window handles. It was fun making this and thrifty too - might make a whole set of them!

But now it's your turn to use the word Window to create a clean and simple card. Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS challenge blog where you will be blown away by the cards my team mates have made. When you're ready, you'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to upload your own creation. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with the Snippets Playground as these snippets were used:

 

 

I'm also joining in at Happy Little Stampers Dies challenge where Anything Goes and Less Is More where the challenge this week is Anything CAS Goes. I'm also sharing at Darnell's NBUS challenge where we showcase our Never Before Used Schtuff :)

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We've had workmen in the garden this week andso I, once again displaying shocking cruelty to puppies, informed Eva that she was not allowed to play with them. She moped about, watching them wistfully through the French doors with her nose pressed against the glass. When she went out for her walks, she forgot about them instantly and bounced about cheerfully as usual, but on her return she resumed her persecuted demeanour. I was glad when they left!

Sending hugs,

The one layer Birthday bird

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to another Saturday burst of inspiration courtesy of Addicted to CAS! The code word today was chosen by the oh-so-talented Marie, who has delighted us all by returning to her roots as an Addicted to CAS designer!

 

I was so pleased to see this code word as I can't resist a bird stamp and it gave me a chance to use one from a set that I hadn't inked up before :)

 

This gorgeous little layered wren comes from Robin and Wren by The Greetery, and I teamed him up with a leaf from Uniko's Nature's Treasure stencil. It's a very simple one layer card - I smooshed a little pale blue ink on a card front, sponged the stencil with two shades of green and added detail with a brown pencil, stamped the layers of bird and finished with the sentiment.

 

Okay so now it's your turn! Do fly over to the Addicted to CAS challenge site to check out the wonderful inspiration from the team and then you can use the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post to share your own creation. Don't forget to keep your card nice and clean and simple with plenty of white space... we can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up at Happy Little Stampers Birthday challenge where Anything Goes and with the Anything Goes option at Seize Your Birthday; I'm also joining in at Cardz 4 Guyz where Melanie's theme is Use A Stencil.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I was out on a walk the other day when I spotted a very rare bird. Here she is...

 

... the Golden Retriever bird in full flight!!

Sending hugs,

Masculine birthday brights

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to another fun challenge at Tic Tac Toe! LeAnne has come up with a great board which will cover all your back-to-school needs but that is versatile for those of you who aren't in the school market!

 

Since my 'kids' are all in their twenties now and left school long ago, I looked for a way to make a birthday card for my eldest son. I chose the diagonal from the top left Blue/Red/Yellow.

 

I reached for a stencil that I've been dying to try, Mid Century Modern Shapes by Uniko. After selecting the inks, I created an abstract pattern by sponging them into some of the shapes on the stencil, allowing them to overlap.

 

The sentiment is a favourite from Concord & 9th, stamped in black ink, and the panel was trimmed to size with a stitched rectangle from Heffy Doodle. I linked the sentiment with the pattern using bright enamel dots and attached the panel to a card base.

 

Right, it's your turn now! Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge site to admire the beautiful samples the team has made for you. 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'm linking this card up with Seize The Birthday (no topping); as well as AAA Birthday where Anything Birthday Goes; and Happy Little Stampers Birthday challenge; I'm also joining in at Cardz 4 Guyz where Melanie would like us to Use A Stencil.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva's little pal has settled in so nicely and the two are enjoying each other's company. I told you that having fallen in the river, Koda has become quite the water baby and she has gone on from strength to strength. I threw a stick in the Big River for Eva the other day and before I could blink, Koda had launched herself off the river bank, swam over and whipped the stick out from under Eva's nose!

 

Don't worry about Eva's nose being put out of joint. Once I had made sure the little dog had come to shore safely, Eva got another stick to swim after. I think Eva likes having a swimming pal!

Sending hugs,

Leaves in different ways

Hello, crafting friends!

Everyone has favourite types of stamps don't they. Many of us can't resist flowers but I'm also attracted by bird stamps, dog stamps and, more obscurely, furniture stamps. Not to mention tree stamps and leaf stamps - which brings me to today's post where I've used a large leafy stamp in a couple of different ways.

CARD ONE

This is a very simple card made by stamping Large Background Tropical Paradise from Uniko in green ink, trimming it with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle and attaching it to a card base.

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Letterpress Winter (retired.) I stamped it in Versamark ink and heat embossed with gold embossing powder for a nice shiny look. It was cut out with a stitched label die from The Works and popped up on the background with dimensional pads.

CARD TWO

I stamped the same leafy stamp in green again. This time I used alcohol markers to colour the image, then cut nine circles out with a 1" circle punch. I arranged these on a card panel cut slightly smaller than my card base.

The sentiment is from Concord & 9th's Enjoy It All, stamped in dark green and heat embossed with clear embossing powder  - couldn't quite capture the shine in this photo, but it's lovely and glossy! The card panel was attached to the base with dimensional pads.

Here are the two cards together. They're very different aren't they, but both are quite masculine designs.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

These cards got an Honourably Mention at the Twofer Challenge!

CHALLENGES

I made these cards for the Twofer Challenge where we are asked to make two cards, two different designs, for two different occasions using the same stamp/die/stencil; I'm linking both up with Tristan's Masculine challenge at Watercooler Wednesday too.

Card One uses two dies so I'm joining in with Happy Little Stampers Die challenge where Anything Goes.

Card Two was made using Cécile's beautiful sketch at Freshly Made Sketches so I'm playing along there.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I can talk all I like about favourite types of stamps but I know what you're thinking... I just like stamps don't I! It would be much quicker to make a list of the kinds of stamps I DON'T like! And I suspect that goes for many of you too :) 

Sending hugs,

Watercolour posy birthday

Hello, crafting friends!

I love that the CAS Colours and Sketches challenges alternate between colours and sketches each Tuesday.  But the biggest challenge comes when there's a fifth Tuesday in a month and then we give you a set of colours AND a sketch to follow! YoonYoung is hosting the double today:

I was just about to crack on with a card featuring fish in a bowl when I saw a sample of floral fabric online and become totally inspired by that instead!

I started by masking off a strip on my card base and blending the Marina Mist ink to a fade. The flowers are from Just For You by Clearly Besotted, heat embossed in gold, watercoloured, then fussy cut. I repeated this process and cut just one bloom out to pop up for a bit of dimension.

To finish, I added a gold embossed sentiment from Enjoy It All by Concord & 9th and splattered the background with turquoise and gold before attaching the flower spray to it. Can you see the shine a bit better in this last photo?

I do hope you can join us this week! There's some amazing inspiration from the team over at the CAS Colours and Sketches blog. Do check it out and you'll find the linky tool there too so that you can play along.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge where anything goes and Watercooler Wednesday where Helen is hosting this fortnight's Occasions challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The electricity has gone off in our house today and we’re waiting for the electrician, so please forgive any mistakes in this post as I can’t use my computer. I’m quietly giving thanks that it is the hottest day of the year so far, so no chilly tootsies but I AM stressing about the freezer... please send good vibes!

Edited to add: We're back on! We spent hours this morning isolating everything that could have tripped the electricity circuit and then re-introducing everything to identify the faulty appliance. We came up with nothing. Four hours later, the electrician arrived and had no trouble at all flipping the switch back. He couldn't find any fault at all. Do we have ghosts?!!! Needless to  say, I was SO embarrassed but he was very nice about it.

Sending hugs,

A birthday in the park

Hello, crafting friends!

It was my gorgeous daughter's birthday at the weekend and Eva and I made a card to help her celebrate!

I made a background by stamping the bench from WPlus9's New Home, then covering it with a mask made from a sticky note. I was then able to mask off, and sponge in, a sky and some grass. I added the tree from Stampin' Up's Sheltering Tree (and if you're reading this Gill, I bless you every time I use this set - thank you!) colouring the leaves with autumnal markers before stamping. I  added more leaves to the grass too before removing the bench mask and trimming the panel with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle.

Now we needed a pup to sit on the bench. I nearly died from cuteness overload when I saw Clearly Besotted's new Holiday Huskies stamp set; the dogs have been drawn by a human who clearly knows dogs very well! Eva thought one of the huskies could pretend to be a golden retriever, only with pointy ears instead of floppy ones. She asked me to help her demonstrate the look and, since she looked very cute with her ears up, I stamped the dog, coloured her with alcohol markers and snipped her out before popping her up on the bench. The sentiment is from Concord and 9th's Enjoy it all.

CHALLENGES

This card was inspired by the beautiful colour palette at The House That Stamps Built (this is the challenge blog of Repeat Impressions Stamps and I enjoyed having a browse there too!) I'm also joining in at Animal Friends Challenge where the theme is Dog/Cat; I'm also sharing at NBUS (never before used schtuff) with my new Holiday Huskies and New Home schtamp schets - thank you for bearing with me Darnell!!!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

One of the dogs I walk has to be kept on lead at all times sadly, but she and I have made friends and we have lots of fun together. Once while walking her, I had a text that I had to deal with immediately, so I sat down on a handy bench. The little dog hopped up and sat solemnly beside me until I pressed send and continued our walk. I was amused by this so I sat down at the next bench to see what she'd do, and she came up and sat beside me again! It gave me the idea for today's card but, since my job is to be walking and not sitting about, I now use the benches (which are just narrow seats, no backs) as sort of agility equipment for her to jump over. She loves this :)

Sending hugs,

Aaaaargh!

Hello crafting friends!

Under these lock down conditions, you could be forgiven for thinking that all the excitement has gone out of life. Well if that sounds like you, my recommendation is to go and get your trainers on and limber up for a spot of speed stamping, courtesy of the As You See It Challenge! Come and see:

I'm quite a fan of speed stamping and love challenging myself to make a card in 10 minutes or less as requested by the site. I started my card by sponging a quick background across one corner of a card panel, green on the bottom bit and blue fading upwards. That was when the first thing went wrong! I used a sponge that I'd obviously accidentally used for green ink previously! But hey - a greenish blue sky is okay isn't it?!

All the stamps are from Concorde & 9th's Enjoy It All, except the small yellow flower; that one is from Be Merry, a Christmas set by WPlus9 that was out on my desk from yesterday. I stamped the flowers and leaves over the green part of the sponging, adding the detail stamps over the top of the larger flowers in the same ink, and not trying to be too perfect about anything. That's when the second thing went wrong! The pink ink showed up okay in the same colour, the red didn't. So I had to scramble about looking for a darker red to go over the roses... the seconds ticked by at a millions miles per hour and sweat began to bead my forehead!

I used my stamping platform to position the sentiment - and there was a bit of time wasted here too! The 'your day' part was added in red ink but got mixed up with the descenders of the 'enjoy' part, so I had to stamp it again on a scrap of card stock and snip it out. The clock was really racing at this point and I just had time to trim the card panel and attach it to a card base with seconds to spare. PHEW!

CHALLENGES
As I mentioned, this speed stamping challenge is the brainchild of the As You See It challenge and I think they do one every 5th challenge. Do try it - it's fun and certainly gets your heart pumping! I was also inspired by the brightest, happiest photo at Just Us Girls - isn't it gorgeous?!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
With all this beautiful weather we've been having in the heart of England, Eva has become used to the French doors to the garden being open and has enjoyed wandering in and out as she pleases. When she finds it closed now she looks at me reproachfully with her enormous soft brown eyes.

"Mum, a sad thing has happened. Someone has accidentally closed the door and I don't seem to be able to walk into the garden!"

How have you been spending your weekend?

Hugs,

Pisky fish

Hello crafting friends!

There's nothing like back-of-the-mind worry to strike the mojo down and, over the last week or two, I've done my share of looking at crafting challenges, looking at my stash and thinking 'um...' But today, ideas happened and I had a lovely crafting session! Come and see:

I started off by inking the sea using a mask made with one of the Lawn Fawn Stitched Simple Wavy Border dies. Holding the mask down, I blended a blue and a blue-green ink upwards, moving the mask a small amount each time. The panel was cut out with a Stitched Rectangle die from Heffy Doodles and trimmed at the top with one of Lawn Fawn's Stitched Puffy Cloud Border dies.

The fish is from Under the Sea by Clearly Besotted. I stamped him, coloured him with alcohol markers and fussy cut him. The sentiment was stamped in Memento black ink over the sea and the fish popped up on a dimensional at a jaunty angle :)

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
I was very proud that this card was picked as the winner at CASology!

CHALLENGES
It was the Masking challenge at Perfectly CAS that got me started today and the fish represented a Pisces for CASology's Zodiac code word. Cardz 4 Guyz want to see cards with a By or In the Sea theme, and at Watercooler Wednesday there's an Anything Goes With a Masculine Twist challenge so I'll join in there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
One of our nicknames for my youngest son is The Biscuit. (Nope, no idea why!) This has sometimes morphed into The Bisky Bat (no clue about this either!) He is also a Pisces, so The Bisky Bat turns into The Pisky Fish around birthday time. We were lucky enough to have been able to celebrate his birthday outside and in a restaurant before Covid-19 hit the UK, but this card might be for him next year :)

Hope you are having a peaceful and productive weekend. What are you up to today?

Hugs,