Say it with love

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to another Thursday at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge and another board full of card inspiration! Just look at the fabulous elements Elizabeth has come up with for today's board:

 

 

I chose the left hand column, Heart/Red/Stitching and used it to make a bold valentine.

 

I began by watercolouring a piece of white card with a variety of pink and red inks. When it was dry I used a stitched rectangle die to cut it into strips, glued it to a piece of paper and cut it with a X Cut heart die. I cut another couple of red hearts the same size, glued them together and attached my stitched medallion over the top for some nice dimension.

 

The stitched medallion was stamped with a leafy stamp from Stampin' Up's Season's Blessings and then topped with a sprig from The Greetery's Wildflower Mix die set, with tiny hearts added instead of flower heads. I spelled out the word LOVE using the Slim Alphabet Dies, also by the Greetery. The medallion was mounted onto a red panel and then attached to a card front inked round the edges with green ink.

 

 

Okay, it's over to you! Which column or row takes your fancy this week? Or are you going for one of the diagonals? Whichever you choose, do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog and check out the cards my team mates 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 with us. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I was very much inspired by the beautiful graphics at Inkspirational and at Double D Challenge where the theme is Hearts, so I'm linking up there.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

At the weekend I joined my daughter and her Maid of Honour on a hunt for the perfect wedding dress. It was a wonderful day, full of fantasy gowns, bubbles, laughter and feasting (as always in our family!!) I can't show you the dress that my daughter has chosen yet, but I can show you the interior of the boutique she made her selection from...

 

 

... a riot of pink and roses and femininity!

Sending hugs,

Precious Love

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Happy Saturday to you and welcome to a brand new challenge at Addicted to CAS! My talented teamie Raga has chosen the cue word for us this time and it's a timely one with Valentine's Day around the corner:

 

Of course you can use hearts on any kind of card, so the world is your oyster! I have gone for the kind of card you could give at any time of the year to show your love and appreciation.

 

I started this card with a beautiful sentiment from The Colorado Co's Big and Bold Get Well, stamping it in pink ink. I heat embossed it with clear embossing powder so that it became waterproof and then splodged a load of diluted blue ink over it and blotted with kitchen paper. When it was dry I cut a label shape out of it, using a die from The Works, and attached it to a card base.

Meanwhile, I cut some gold foil hearts using dies and punches and enjoyed decorating them. The largest one was run through an embossing folder I picked up in a Hobbycraft sale last weekend - 50p well spent I reckon! It was embellished with a clear gem. I punched a few pink hearts and stacked them up under the punched heart to add subtle detail. The tiny heart embosses as it cuts :)  Finally, all the hearts were glued in place around the sentiment.

So now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS challenge site to check out the beautiful designs my talented teamies have made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post so that you can share your own creation with us when you're ready. Have fun - but remember to keep your design nice and clean and simple!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge where Anything Goes; I'm  also joining in at CASology where the cue card is Affection.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'll leave you with a picture sent from my very own precious daughter* captioned "Me as a child when you used to tell me to tidy my room!"

*May not be an ACTUAL photo of my daughter!!

Sending hugs,

From the snippets box with love

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Happy Thursday and welcome to a shiny new challenge at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge! My friend LeAnne is in charge of the board this week and she has got all your valentine bases covered as well as plenty of options for any other kind of card you choose to make!

I've gone for the left hand column, Pink/Valentine or Heart/White, and have added in a few of the other ideas too! 

This card was made entirely of snippets except for the card base. I cut a heart out of a scrap of pretty pale pink striped paper and stamped up the side of it with a floral stamp from So Much by Uniko, adding colour with coloured pencils. 

The 'love' sentiment comes from the same stamp set. I stamped it in red on a tiny scrap of thick white card, heat embossed it with clear embossing powder, snipped it out and decorated it with a tiny die cut heart. I arranged some gold thread on my decorated heart before adding the sentiment label.

 

For a bit of extra dimension, I die cut a few more hearts out of off-cyuts of red card and glued them in a stack, finishing with the DSP one I'd decorated. I found a gold die cut 'you' in the snippets box, which I'd trimmed off a Lawn Fawn birthday sentiment in the dim and distant past, and added it to my sentiment label. To finish, I added gold dots around the flowers with a gold Uni Paint marker.

So now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog and drool over the amazing inspiration from my team mates. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to link up your own creation when you're ready. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with the penultimate Ruby's Memory challenge at The Snippets Playground; and at Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge where Anything Goes this month.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva has a new friend! When we walk in the fields behind our house, we sometimes meet a lady who brings her granddaughter to play there. The two year old is not remotely nervous of Eva - her grandmother tells me she's used to dogs - but Eva has been cautious around the little girl knowing that toddlers can be unpredictable. But after meeting them in the fields a good few times now, Eva and the little girl have struck up a friendship. It is so sweet! Eva lays down beside the little girl to make herself smaller and the little girl strokes her and makes kissy noises. Sometimes she naughtily takes off her hat and gives it to Eva who runs off with it! The grandmother shrugs and tells me that's what washing machines are for!

Sending Hugs,

Hearts and stripes

Hello, crafting friends!

Valentine's Day might be over but my heart dies have arrived and I'm not leaving until I've tried them out! But then it occurred to me that a heart motif would be perfect for a teen birthday so I set about making one for my niece.

The heart dies are an older XCut set - it's taken ages to find nesting dies with a heart shape I like! I cut four hearts out of black card stock and one out of white card stock stamped with one of the stamps from Uniko's Background Builders Classics. The hearts were all glued together to make one dimensional heart.

To decorate my heart, I stamped and heat embossed the styylised roses from Clearly Besotted's Just For You and watercoloured them. Once they were dry, I fussy cut the centres in three different sizes. The die cut leaves were found in my snippets box. I coloured them with a marker and glued them together with the roses on the heart.

The background is a pale pink card panel that has been stencilled with Funky Fossil's Simply Stripes, then trimmed with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle. The sentiment was made with a combination of stamps from my stash, stamped and heat embossed for extra shine.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

So pleased that this card was a Fave at Festive Friday and was also the Diamond Winner at Color My Heart Color Dare!

CHALLENGES

I was inspired by Festive Friday, where I chose Hearts, Flowers and Watercolouring from the inspiration list. It was Time Out Challenges that influenced the style of hearts and flowers with its mouthwatering inspiration photo! I decided on the pink and green colour palette thanks to Color My Heart Color Dare #431, adding the black to give it some 'edge'.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I've no idea what was going on today, but this morning I was able to go for a walk with Eva without a coat on! There was a warm breeze and lots of lovely sunshine! Spring in February? I mean, no-one is longing for spring as much as I am but that really is a bit early! A sharp wind has picked up since then though, which enabled me to get a bit of crafting done, pausing to have a nice cuppa and a slice of homemade coffee and walnut cake. Little pleasures...!

The mug was a lovely gift from my youngest son and I can only be thankful that he didn't use the personalisation service to put something rude on it! He probably ordered it first thing in the morning when his naughtiness levels were at their lowest!

Sending hugs,