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,

Birthday surprise!

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Happy Saturday and welcome to another fun challenge at Addicted to CAS! Now, gather round and listen carefully please as Miss Jaydee comes forward to give you the code word for this fortnight!

Isn't that fun?! I decided to make a card featuring kids FOR kids and reached for an older set called Fly With Me by Clearly Besotted. The lego-style kids are designed to be put into the aeroplane in the set but I decided to have them leaping out from behind a birthday banner waving balloons!

I stamped the group of kids first, directly onto a card base, and coloured them with oil-based coloured pencils. The balloons were added by stenciling colour into a stencil made with a small circle punch. The strings were added with a fine-nibbed fineliner pen.

When the kids and their balloons were in place, I positioned Clearly Besotted's Sunny Day stencil over the group and gently sponged pale yellow ink through it to create a fade-out background. The banner is a favourite from Sugar Rush by Winnie and Walter (sadly no longer trading.) After stamping it, adding the sentiment and snipping it out, I added it to the card front using dimensional pads.

So now it's your turn! What does the word Kids inspire you to make? We can't wait to see! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS challenge site to check out the team's ideas. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to share your own creation with us. Don't forget to keep your card clean and simple with plenty of nice clear space!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Addicted to Stamps and More where Birthdays is the latest challenge.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

A heatwave is sweeping the UK so we've been spending a lot of time on the river walks.

I leave you with a rare sighting of the Golden Hippo!

Sending hugs,

A colourful birthday celebration

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Happy Saturday and welcome to the last Addicted to CAS challenge of 2021. It's a very special challenge too because we are celebrating our 9th birthday! Nancy has stepped up to host the party and she has chosen a lovely code word:

I think we could all use a bit of colour in our lives!

 

The code word encouraged me to make a birthday card for my daughter whose birthday was this month. I used Scorpio by AALL & Create for the main image, stamping it in black, colouring it with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and fussy cutting it.

The image was mounted onto a card base that I'd sponged bright inks over to create a chalky looking background. The sentiment combines words from the AALL & Create set with an older Winnie and Walter set.

Okay! Now it's your turn! We would love it if you hopped over to the Addicted to CAS challenge site where, as usual, our designers have pulled out all the stops to inspire you AND we have the fabulous Cécile Ribon guesting with us. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to share your own creation. Don't forget to keep your card nice and clean and simple but above all, have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Just Add Ink where they are asking us to Just Add Legs - lots of legs going on here! I'm also playing along at Seize The Birthday - Julie's theme is Beverages but I'm going with the Anything Goes option; I'm also joining in at the NBUS challenge where I'm sharing the Never Before Used schtamps I used!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

My daughter and I had a wonderful time at the Christmas fair yesterday and both managed to do a little bit of Christmas shopping between laughing and chatting and drinking hot spiced apple juice. There was a walk through a wooded area to get to the stalls and they'd put up some kind of a light device that made it look as if it was snowing - so beautiful, especially as the evening drew in. I did take photos but none of them have come out well :/ 

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,

Floral circles

Hello, crafting friends!

What a lot of fun I had making today's card! It was one of those days when I had a vague idea that I wasn't particularly excited by, but then got carried away and ended up having loads of creative fun!

The idea was to sponge some circles onto a card base and decorate each with flowers and leaves. I opened a new stamp set, Pretty Perennials by Stampin' Up, which I'd been looking forward to using. But when I'd done the stamping, it all looked a bit flat. So then I got my coloured pencils out and started adding a bit of shading to some of my stamped images and suddenly things started looking a bit livelier! 

I spent quite a bit of time looking for the right sentiment and came up with a custom one, made by mixing 'wishing you a very happy' from Lawn Fawn's Easter Party and 'Birthday' from Winnie & Walter's Sugar Rush. I spotted the hearts in the Sugar Rush set too and added those to bring all the images together. The panel was trimmed, mounted onto coordinating pink card stock and attached to a card base.

CHALLENGES

I'm playing at Color Hues, where the colour duo is Pink and Green; Just Add Ink is asking us to pick two out of Feathers, Leaves and Petals - I've gone for Leaves and Petals; Inspired By has inspired me again, this time with a photo featuring beautifully decorated cupcakes; I'm also going to share this card at the NBUS challenge, the place to show off our Never Before Used Schtuff!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva and I met up for a walk with some friends of ours the other day. One of the friends is two-legged and fun for me to chat with, and the other friend is a black lab called Otis who has a zest for life to match Eva's. They enjoy many of the same interests - finding sticks, swimming, cocking an ear at the sound of a pheasant and giving chase to pheasants, rabbits and deer (who are always MUCH faster than they are!)

Here they are in a pond that they discovered in a handy gap in the hedge. They explored it thoroughly and I get the impression that they rated it 'Ten out of ten, would visit again'!

Sending hugs,

Baby, it's cold outside!

Hello, crafting friends!

It's time for a new challenge at Addicted to CAS! Ceal is hosting this fortnight and she's chosen Snow as her code word. 

Snow usually makes me think of Christmas, even though it's quite rare to have a white Christmas here in the heart of England! But I think a snowflake motif also works well for sending heartwarming cards in the winter. 

I started this card with a retired die from the Stained Glass set by Stampin' Up. I cut it twice and attached it to a card base with spray glue. The banner is from Winnie & Walter's Sugar Rush which I stamped in green/blue ink and added the sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Warm Wishes. The snowflakes are from Dies By Chloe and the centres have been decorated with gems.

Now it's over to you! What comes to your mind when you hear the word snow? There's plenty of inspiration from the rest of the team at Addicted to CAS as well as a beauty from our talented guest designer Melanie. Click here to have a browse and to link up your own creation :)

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Happy Little Stampers' Anything Goes With Dies challenge and am also joining in with Cardz for Guyz where the theme is Let it Snow.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Well we DID have snow last week, but only briefly. A little dusting on the ground when I took Eva out in the morning and a few of those tiny magical flakes that fall very slowly. By the time we got home, it had stopped and the snow on the ground had pretty much gone. Enough for me to sing 'Do you wanna build a snowman?' to the empty fields but not enough to actually build one!!

Sending hugs,

A leafy thank you

Hello, crafting friends!

I've had a card simmering away in the back of my mind for a couple of days and managed to transfer it into actual card stock and ink this afternoon!

I had brought my Reverse Confetti Fall foliage set out ready for some autumnal crafting but since we appear to have the summer back here, I brought the green ink out.

It's a very simple card: Two leaf stamps were stamped directly onto a thick card base above and below a central line, and coloured with water-based markers. I stamped a banner (from Winnie & Walter's Sugar Rush) in grey ink, added a bold 'thanks' (from MFT's All Occasion Sentiments) and snipped it out. To finish the card, I glued the banner over the leaves and added a few gems.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

So pleased this card was chosen as a Weeklyy Winner at CAS Colours and Sketches!

And it was picked as a Favourite at CAS(E) This Sketch - yay!!!

CHALLENGES

Those beautifully understated colours are from this week's colour challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches and I'm also linking up with As You See It because this my new favourite colour duo! The sketch is another beauty from CASE This Sketch.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva has had a great day! She got all excited playing with various dogs in the park and then (showing off!) headed for a grubby part of the river. I called "Not there!" but she became strangely afflicted with deafness and plunged in. She emerged dripping with muddy water so I took her straight home, enduring the pitying looks/smirks of the other dog owners. At home I rinsed her off while she cowered and gave me reproachful eyes. She wriggled like an eel while being towelled dry and then disappeared upstairs to collect up a selection of garments for the garden. After that she pretty well needed a snoozzle!

Here she is looking clean and wholesome in the afternoon sun. She is a minx but I love her dearly!

Sending hugs,

Celebrate with cupcakes!

Hello, crafting friends!

I'm proud to say I've been invited to guest design at Tic Tac Toe again and as usual, there's a fabulous board this week, crammed with inspiration! 

I've chosen the top row for my card - cupcakes, scallops and yellow and here's how it ended up:

I started by cutting a scalloped panel. I don't have scalloped rectangles but it recently occurred to me that with a bit of lining up, I can use my scalloped square die to cut one - yay! I masked off the edges, positioned Funky Fossil's Honeycomb die over it and sponged yellow ink into it. Once the mask was removed, I attached the panel to a card base. Ok, ready for the cupcakes!

They come from Sugar Rush by Winnie and Walter. I stamped the group using a mask, coloured the icing with alcohol markers and fussy cut the whole thing out. There's a patterned cupcake case in the set which I used and I found some snippets of designer paper which coordinated well, so I used them to paper-piece the little flags. Finally, I stamped the banner in the set, added the birthday greeting, cut it out and popped it up with dimensionals.

So now it's YOUR turn! Has the Tic Tac Toe board got your creative juices flowing? You'll find more inspiration from the design team and can also link up your creation HERE.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card with The Color Throwdown where they've come up with my favourite colour combination this week! I'm also joining in with Cupcake Inspirations where they're celebrating their 500th challenge with a Birthday Celebration and I thought it would be highly appropriate to add some cupcakes!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

My daughter has been with me this week, which has been lovely. She has started the Couch to 5K running challenge and persuaded me to join her one morning. It's an exercise program that starts off with a mixture of walking and running and I did manage to do it but was a bit of a sweaty mess by the end of it! We both had a lie down on the field and watched the clouds making pictures. I described the bull I could see pawing the ground and a crescent moon with a face blowing him away. My daughter is a bit more down to earth than I am. "I can't see that," she said. "I can see a toilet seat!"

Sending hugs,