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,

Peace on the beach

Hello, crafting friends!

After a win at the fabulous CAS on Friday challenge, I've been invited to Guest Design with the lovely ladies there. *waves hello* The theme this week is

Summer 

Since there's no chance of me going on holiday this summer, I've gone to fantasy holiday land! Come and see:

A peaceful spot on an empty beach, glorious sunshine, a pile of books, the clink of ice in my Strawberry Daiquiri... YES PLEASE! Sorry, I didn't mean to shout but it does sound like the ideal place to unwind. In reality of course, Eva would be with me and would be scampering in and out of the sea in a very unrestful way and shaking cold salty water all over me!!!

I used one of Lawn Fawn's Stitched Hillside Border dies on speckled card stock for my sand and a pale blue card stock for the sky. This was masked with a sticky note and a sea inked in with a sponge. I added a sunshine from Concorde & 9th's Hello Sunshine and used a Heffy Doodles Stitched Rectangle die to cut them first into a rectangle, then to trim it into a square.

I made a beach towel out of a piece of striped washi tape and then assembled the rest of my elements - the cocktail is from Clearly Besotted's Raise a Glass, the books from Waffle Flower's Books and Coffee and the sunglasses from Paper Smooches' Sunny Side Up. I coloured everything in with alcohol markers, fussy cut them and attached them to the card.

Finally, I found a sentiment which worked perfectly with the shape of my sand: it's from Fly With Me by Clearly Besotted and it made me very happy!

Okay, it's over to you now! What does summer mean to you? I hope you'll join in with us and link your lovely CAS creation up here. There's some amazing talent on the CAS on Friday design team and you'll find some fabulous inspiration here too :)

CHALLENGES
I'm joining in at Time Out where the code word is Peaceful and the Beach/Ocean theme at The Sisterhood of Crafters.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Eva doesn't need a beach to go swimming. She has a very effective water radar and is always diving into undergrowth and finding hidden streams.

When she gets home, she likes to be rinsed off and rubbed down with a towel. After that, she's more than ready for a square meal. Once that's eaten, she checks to see if I'm good for any chews or other treats but, if not, she settles down for a nice snoozle. This is usually in an area where I have to step over her to leave the house because then she knows if I'm going out or not :)

Hope you are all safe and well.

Hugs,

Card versus crafter

Hello crafting friends!

Does anyone know that scenario where you have an idea for a card and think to yourself 'I'll just quickly make that' only to find it's like a battle to do the simplest thing and hours go by as you keep having to start again? That's today's card for you. Come and see:

It's such a simple little card but my goodness it fought me! I thought I'd have a circle of inky sky and stencil clouds in it... but no. The card was having none of that and, after several tries, I topped my circle with the curly clouds from Paper Smooches' Sunny Side Up - which I ended up preferring anyway. I stamped the cloud outlines on scrap card stock, heat embossed them, added a touch of watercolour and cut them out with paper snips.

The sentiment, from the same set, was stamped in coral ink on a strip of vellum and heat embossed. The first one tore in my trimmer, much to the delight of my naughty card, but the successful second one was wrapped around the card panel and secured at the back with tape. I then debossed the edges of the panel using my scoreboard.

There is a sun in the Paper Smooches set but I wanted something smaller so I reached for my Hello Sunshine turnabout set from Concorde and 9th. I stamped it in yellow ink, heat embossed it and then cut it out. I had to use a circle punch and a pair of paper snips for this because I don't have the dies, and the card watched smugly. I popped the sun up on a dimensional, added a few enamel dots and then looked for a matching yellow card stock to mount the panel on...

... but the cupboard was bare! I could not be beaten at this point though, and sassily matched the colour to an alcohol marker which coloured the edges of the mount nicely. The card knew it was beaten and backed down, muttering resentfully.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
So pleased to say this card was chosen as the winner at CAS on Friday!

CHALLENGES
The starter for this card was the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch, so I'll link up there; I'm joining in with CAS on Friday where the theme is Sunshine and Allsorts where the challenge is Embossing - Wet or Dry; the colours I've used are Mint, Lagoon, Smoothie with additional Lemonade, which are
from Color My Heart Color Dare challenge 398.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
My youngest son and I went on a trip to a local garden centre today and I've realised that one thing about the virus is that every small outing seems SO exciting these days. The sun is back out here and it is very hot and humid, but my son appeared wearing a hoodie. "It's pretty hot," I told him. "You may not need the hoodie." He gave me a measured look. "Your comments have been noted," he said in a deadpan voice, "and will be processed within three to five working days." 

Hope you've had a great weekend!

Hugs,

Birthday Bear at the Beach

Hello crafting friends!

After spending a day dodging showers today, I thought it would be fun to warm myself up with a sizzling hot beach scene! Come and see:

I started this card by sponging the centre of a card panel with distress inks to create a sky, sea and sand. The bear is from MFT's Safari Party and he normally holds balloons. I gave him a delicious strawberry ice cream instead, using the sun ray from Paper Smooches' Sunny Side Up for the cone, and doodling in the ice cream with a fine liner pen. I doodled him a nice stripy pair of swimming trunks too :)

Who doesn't enjoy a nice sunny day on their birthday? The sun from Sunny Side up cuts out nicely with a 1" circle punch I discovered and, in case my little bear got a little too hot, I provided him with a beach umbrella courtesy of Under My Umbrella by Stampin' Up. I coloured all my elements with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and finished the card with a sentiment made from a combination of sets.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
... Well, not an award as such, but this card was mentioned honourably at As You See It!

CHALLENGES
I'm linking my beach card up with Just Us Girls, where the word this week is Sunshine; Festive Friday, where I chose Sun, Bright Colours and Vacation Theme from the inspiration list (as well as Patterns and Ice cream!); Seize The Birthday, where it's All About Summer; and As You See It, where we're asked to choose one of our favourite movies. Although my card doesn't represent anything about it apart from the beach, I've chosen Beaches - a film about the friendship between two women that is perfect if you feel like a good cry!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I've been making ice cream using just fruit - have you heard of this? When bananas get over-ripe, I cut them into inch pieces and freeze them. To make 'ice cream', I just take out a few of the pieces, allow them to defrost very slightly and whizz them up in the food processor. You can make different flavours by adding other frozen fruits - strawberries or raspberries are delicious! - or you can add vanilla extract to the basic banana and chopped chocolate say, or chopped nuts. For extra decadence I add a little cream - still healthier than the sugar and sweetener loaded commercial stuff. It takes just minutes too!

Let me know if you try this won't you!

Hugs,

Bright and happy birthday

Hello crafting friends!

Have you still got your sunglasses on from yesterday's bright card? Oh good, because I stayed with the intense colours today :) Come and see:

I hope you're smiling right now because smiling is supposed to be contagious isn't it, and Mr Sunshine has got the biggest, fattest smile on his face! I used Paper Smooches' Sunny Side Up to make him, stamping the circle, adding rays all round it and then that big toothy grin inside. I coloured him with alcohol markers and fussy cut him.

I made masks out of sticky notes for the clouds so I was able to mask them off and stamp a cluster of them. They were given barely-there shadows with an alcohol marker and blender pen before being fussy cut. The final element was the pair of sunglasses - stamped, coloured, fussy cut and given a lovely shiny coat of Crystal Effects.

All these pieces were arranged on a turquoise textured card base with rounded bottom corners. The clouds were popped up on dimensionals and I added a block birthday greeting from Uniko.

CHALLENGES
Lots of my favourite challenges are doing their best to keep us cheerful, with The Paper Players looking for cards to Make You Smile, and Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge also going for a Smile theme. I'm also loitering around the drinks area at Watercooler Wednesday for an Anything Goes challenge :)

AND IN OTHER NEWS
We had a lovely games afternoon with the family yesterday afternoon. My grown up children are very good at finding fun online games and we use Zoom so that we can feel as if we've all gathered in the same room. We played Scribbl.io, which is a sort of online Pictionery, and a game which involved making up words and giving them dictionary definitions, which was a riot. I came last as usual. Everything was right in my world for a couple of hours :)

Did you find something fun to do at the weekend?

Hugs,

Let's go and fly a kite

Hello crafting friends!

Also, hello April Showers! Where have you been? We waited for you but in the end Summer had to step in. Anyway, you're here now, that's the main thing. Oh dear, I am now having conversations with the weather, so I think it's time for a little crafting...

I'm using a NBUS stamp set by Paper Smooches called Sunny Side Up which I bought recently although I think it's been around for a very long time. I had to have it because of the clouds - they're so friendly looking aren't they?!

I started by masking off the edges of a card panel and inking in a sky. The kite came next, stamped with Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay ink and coloured with alcohol markers. I drew the string and a tail using the fine end of a marker and added the bows and coloured them.

To make the clouds, I first inked some card stock. I diluted some ink with water on a plate, then mopped it up with a paper towel and dabbed it all over a piece of scrap card stock. Once that was dry, I stamped the clouds onto it and fussy cut them. I LOVE these clouds!

The clouds were arranged on the card and I added a blocky sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks before attaching the panel to a card base. I WAS going to add the word Hi as a pun on 'high as a kite' but, although it made me shriek with laughter for several minutes, I went with the more sensible Hello as Hi was too small.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
I was delighted that this card won an Honourable Mention at The Rainbow Card Challenge!

CHALLENGES
I'm linking this card up with the monochromatic Totally Tiffany theme at The Rainbow Card Challenge. I'm also sharing at the NBUS Challenge. Sunny Side Up may be new to me but it was released in August 2011, so I'm entering the card into the Retro Rubber Challenge where there's an Anything Goes theme.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
While making today's card, I was reminded about my son playing Bert in Mary Poppins, his final school production before going off to uni. He really does have a certain something about him which draws all eyes, and complete strangers were coming up to me in the street for days afterwards to tell me how well they thought he had performed. One lady told me she thought he'd been a wonderful Bert. "He has such a kind face," she added. What a lovely compliment!

Here's the Disney version for your entertainment. Lovely comic moments (the policeman at 1.05 for example!) but you might need tissues - I certainly did!



How are you doing? What are you up to today?

Hugs,