An arch of sympathy

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I hope you're having a great weekend and are ready to join in with another clean and simple challenge at Addicted to CAS :) Vicki is hosting this week and she has chosen Sympathy as her code word. 

 

If you've visited my blog any time this week, you may have noticed that I'm completely obsessed with my new Mistletoe Arches stencil set from The Greetery... and yes, I'm still using it today!

 

The full arch is a bit full on for a CAS card, so I just taped over the lower parts of the stencil and just inked in the top of the arch (if you try this, use low tack tape and be very careful when removing it so that you don't damage your stencil.)

 

I chose blue and grey inks and stamped the beautiful sentiment from Waffleflower's Lighthouse stamp set in black. Finally, I stenciled the berries using a silver pencil and added details with markers.

Okay, it's over to you! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS challenge blog to check out the gorgeous samples my teamies have made to inspire you. 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. Don't forget to keep your card nice and clean and simple with lots of nice clear space - but above all, have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up at the Happy Little Stampers challenge where Anything Stenciled Goes; and also Less is More where there's a Recipe challenge and the theme is Use a Stencil.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I love it when people add seasonal touches to their shops and cafés. This little door mat appeared outside one of my favourite cafés this week.

Sending hugs,

Never lose hope

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I recently added some arch nesting dies from The Greetery to my craft stash and the first thing I thought of when I opened the pack was a rainbow! So I tried it out...

 

... and this was the result! It's a very Die Cut kind of a card. I cut the tops of the arches out of coloured card from my snippets folders. The rainbow was assembled and glued to a card base. Next I cut two card panels to size with a Heffy Doodle stitched rectangle die and trimmed the tops with a cloud border die from Lawn Fawn.

 

The cloud topped panels were overlapped and attached to the card front, allowing the rainbow to peek out of the top. I finished with a lovely sentiment from WaffleFlower, stamped in purple, and embellished with coloured enamel dots.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at the Time Out Challenge where I was inspired by the quote by Maya Angelou 'Try to be the rainbow in someone's cloud.' I'm also joining in with Happy Little Stampers Die challenge where Anything Goes. It's the first outing for the arch dies so I'm playing along at Darnell's NBUS challenge where we share projects made with our Never Before Used Schtuff.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Here is a photo of someone who never loses hope. She has been taught that begging is very common behaviour that never gets rewarded, but that if she is very, very quiet and good lying near the table, she may get a morsel from the clearer upper when everyone has left the table!

 

This is her face when I have suggested a walk but have gone back into  the house for the umpteenth time because I have forgotten things! She is, frankly, a little bit disappointed in me.

Sending hugs,

Double the sunshine

Hello, crafting friends!

The sunshine continues here in the heart of England and I'm enjoying it so much I've extended it to the craft square metre - twice!

I used Clearly Besotted's Sunny Days stencil in these two cards. It is such a favourite of mine partly because it has proved to be so versatile and if you're interested in seeing some more fun ways to use this stencil just click here :)

CARD ONE

For this one, I positioned just the bottom of the stencil over the top of my card panel.

I blended an ombré effect into the stencil using an orange red, an orange and a yellow ink. That was masked off and I blended blue ink out to a fade beneath it to represent a sea.

The sentiment from Altenew's Birthday Greetings, and the boat and birds from Waffleflower's Lighthouse, were all stamped together in black ink using a stamping platform.

CARD TWO

It occurred to me that I could ink up one part of the stencil, then turn it 180 degrees and ink it up again to make a whole sunshine - tada!

In fact it left a narrow white strip in the sun's centre but I sponged that in seamlessly. But it didn't matter in the end because I decided to add a banner sentiment over the top. This one is from Winnie and Walter's Sugar Rush, stamped in orange ink. I was so happy to find that a new sentiment from Uniko's Floral Vines fits perfectly inside it!

In interior design and fashion, they're always talking about 'disruptor colours' - the idea being that a tiny bit of something that doesn't seem to  'go' jolts the eye and adds excitement to a scheme or outfit. It works for cards too! Here, I added three non-matching embellishments - an orange enamel dot, a blue sequin and a gold gem.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

Delighted that Card Two was the Designer Choice at Tic Tac Toe challenge and that Card One won an honourable mention at Seize the Birthday AND was a Festive Friday Fave! 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking both these cards up with this month's Twofer Challenge where the challenge prompt is Sun or Sunrays. In this challenge we must make two cards using the same stamp, die or stencil, making sure that the cards are for two different occasions, and are two different designs.

I'm also linking CARD ONE up with Festive Friday where I've chosen CAS, blue and boat from the inspiration list; and Seize the Birthday where the challenge is to create a birthday card and I've gone for the optional twist of nayutical.

With CARD TWO, I'm also joining in with the Tic Tac Toe challenge, where I've chosen the middle row Hello/friend/sun or sunshine; Day of the Month Card Club, where they're celebrating Best Friend Day; and Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where anything using stencils goes.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Despite closing all the windows and blinds upstairs during the day, it's still too hot for my fluffy girl to sleep comfortably - and she'll put up with anything rather than go downstairs by herself and sleep on the cool kitchen tiles! But I have come up with a cunning plan! I get a couple of her dog towels, spray them lightly with water and pop them in the chest freezer, and get them out just before it's time to settle down. She is delighted!

Sending hugs,