A gothic thank you

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I had time to make a quick card this morning (yay!) and decided to make a floral thank you card for my stash. As I rummaged through my floral stamp collection, I came across Happy Succulents by Uniko which, ironically, I bought to make sympathy cards as I thought the image was quite sombre. I've happied it up today but I think it's turned out to be the kind of thank you card I might send to a goth! What do you think?

I used Stampin' Up inks, sponging in a rough background with Pool Party and stamping the floral image in Shaded Spruce. The outline parts of the image were coloured with coloured pencils and I added detail with black and white markers.

 

The curvy sentiment is new to me and is called Tagged Elegance from the Greetery. When I'd finished the card, I thought the background sponging was a bit too similar to the colour of the image so I added a little soft shading behind the central flowers with a dark violet pencil. That gave it a bit more oomph!

 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at The Paper Players where Joanne has a CAS challenge going on and wants to see us use One Image Only on a card; I'm also playing along at Allsorts where it's the challenge's 14th birthday - wow, what a milestone! They're celebrating with champagne and prizes (ok, maybe not champagne) and the theme is Absolutely Anything Goes - including (I hope) gothic thank you cards! I'm also joining in at Stamping Sensations where the theme is Anything Stamped Goes with optional Add a Stencil.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It's swimming season!! Not for me I hasten to add - we don't want to frighten the horses do we?! - but for Eva. In the photo below, she has been for a walk and a swim, returned home and eaten some Meaty Chunks to keep her strength up, and is now wondering, via the medium of a Paddington Bear Stare, whether there are any of those tasty chews going.

 

I had better add, in the interests of full disclosure, that swimming season in her first eight years was all year round. I realise that I am a rubbish dog trainer and that Eva is an excellent human trainer - a lowering thought.

Sending hugs,

Snippety pumpkins

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Today is an autumn day and I've enjoyed walking in the sunshine with my fluffy girl, admiring the scudding clouds and the gorgeous colours of the changing leaves. I cleared my desk a little today too and realised it is also a day for using up some snippets! 

 

In the course of playing with my new nesting arch dies I seem to have made quite a lot of arch-type snippets. Well, waste not, want not as they say! I sponged my snippets with inks and glued the green frame to the arched background.

 

The pumpkin garland is from Lanterns by Reverse Confetti. It was stamped on another offcut using pale yellow ink, and I had fun colouring it with coloured pencils and fussy cutting it. When it was finished, I glued it to the frame. The sentiment is from the Arched Sentiments set from the Greetery, cut out with the coordinating die.

 

Before attaching my topper to the card base, I did a little soft stenciling on the card front using the Brick Wall stencil from Funky Fossil. Here are the snippets I used, plus another white offcut for the sentiment which I forgot to include (ie didn't plan for lol!)

 

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with The Snippet Playground where the requirement is to make a card with snippets and include a photo of the snippets or list them; I'm also linking up at Happy Little Stampers Die challenge and Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Goes; and Try it on Tuesday where the theme is Autumn. 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Our pets are such good company aren't they. Every day, Eva and I spend our days together and I suppose it's only natural that I should talk to her. This week I found myself telling her what a lovely little sausage roll she is, "And I mean that in the nicest possible way," I said.

Sending hugs,

One layer of flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I've had a little play with some birthday goodies!

The flowers on this one layer card are stenciled with MFT's Flower Bouquet Builder which has made me love stencils more than ever! I created a little cluster of them using jewel coloured inks and then added a little offshoot of leaves and seed heads.

To finish this simple card I stamped a sentiment from a long-ago retired Stampin' Up set and added a few coordinating sequins.

 

CHALLENGES

I fell in love with the colour palette at CAS Colours and Sketches this week and am just about in time to link up there I hope! I'm also joining in at Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything (stenciled) Goes.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I wear trainer socks all the time and have never thought of them as being particularly cute. But on a little pusscat, trainer socks look VERY cute indeed!!

 

You're welcome!

 

Sending hugs,

The lesser spotted greetings card

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Another Saturday has whizzed around and we have another fun challenge to entertain you at Addicted to CAS! We loved seeing your stripy creations last week and now Vicki wants to see what you make of the code word DOTS!

 

I wanted to make my dots the focal point of my card and one way to do that is to highlight them with colour.

 

 

I tore some sticky notes and positioned them on a card base so that I could blend inks in the gap they made. The same ink blend was used on a scrap of white card and I used a small circle punch to cut my dots out. These were arranged over my ink blend and trimmed where they overlapped the white areas of the card base.

The sentiment was put together from a new-to-me set from Altenew called Sweetest Peas. I stamped it with black ink in a curve of the ink blend.

Finally I stamped one of the sweet peas in the set using black ink. The one I chose has a long stem which I curved around the sentiment. After stamping, I used a fineliner pen to fill in any blank bits and darkened some of the parts of the flower.

Okay, so now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS blog and admire all  the gorgeous dotty cards from the design team. You will find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to link up your own creation. Don't forget to keep your card clean and simple with lots of lovely blank space - and have fun!

CHALLENGES

The colours from Color My Heart Color Dare 499 inspired this card - I chose Flamingo, Capri and Lemonade; I'm also sharing this card at Darnell's NBUS challenge where we are challenged to use our Never Before Used Schtuff.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

In the summer months, the stream at the bottom of the fields behind our house runs low enough for us to cross over to a footpath on the other side. That's the route Eva and I took the other day. As we made our way through the undergrowth that leads to the ford, we met a man coming the other way with his dog. We greeted each other as dog walkers do. 'It's quite sniffy down there,' he said. 'It's because it's been raining,' I said and he nodded. 'That always brings up some interesting smells!' I added. As Eva and I crossed the stream, I thought about the way the man's expression had changed to one of surprise and suddenly realised that he had actually said 'It's quite slippery down there.' Aaaargh!

Sending hugs,

Barely there stamping

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Things are quite peaceful around here so I am making the most of it and getting the stamps out! I had a vision in my head of a large gold embossed sentiment with a feminine barely-there image behind it. Here's how it worked out:

 

I started with a bold sentiment from an old Stampin' Up set called Letterpress Winter, heat embossing it straight onto a thick card base with gold embossing powder.  The card base warped a bit so I sandwiched it between a sheet of copier paper and ran it through my Big Shot to flatten it.

 

The flowers, from Clearly Besotted's Just For You,were inked up with neutral ink, stamped off once and then stamped again over the top of my sentiment, resulting in a very pale outline. I chose pale shades of peach, pink and green to colour the image and finished with some clear drops.

CHALLENGES

I was very excited by Joanne's sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches this week (waves to my ex-teamies there!) and couldn't wait to give it a try; I'm also joining in at Watercooler Wednesday where Tristan is hosting an All Things Feminine challenge.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Playing with these pale shades today made me think wistfully about the summer when these are the kind of colours I like to wear. My daughter, who nick-named me Crafting Clare whenever I got my crafty stash out, likes to tell me I look like a sugared almond in the summer!

Sending hugs,

Warm autumn thanks

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another fabulous Thursday challenge at Tic Tac Toe, the challenge that inspires you eight different ways!!

I suddenly realised that if I carry on making Christmas cards, autumn will disappear and I won't have had any of the fun of those gorgeous warm colours of the season, so I chose the middle column: Foliage/Thanks/Sequins/or Gems.

I used a large background stamp from Uniko called Tropical Paradise and turned it into autumnal heaven instead! It was stamped directly onto a card base in brown ink and then I masked the edges and used sponge daubers to apply different colours roughly all over the image. I'm sure you can imagine that it looked like a mess at this stage!!

The idea though was to use coloured pencils over the top of the ink to add detail to the leaves and to create a warm background and I hope you'll agree that it worked quite well! To finish the card, I attached a stitched rectangle stamped with a bold 'thank' and a die cut 'you" embellished with coloured gems.

So now it's over to you! Which of the rows or columns will catch your eye this week? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge site to see the great inspiration from my teamies - you'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post where you can share your own creation. I can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with the Uniko challenge where Anything Goes with an optional twist of Autumn Colours; and, for the second time with Color My Heart Color Dare 463 as I was blown away by the fabulous inspiration photo!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I have scheduled this post because I will be winging my way back from a break on the North Norfolk coast - although hopefully not literally winging my way as I will be travelling by car!

Sending hugs,

Colouring over the lines

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to a brand new challenge at Addicted to CAS where I am hosting this week! What code word have I chosen? Well since autumn has put in an appearance here in the heart of England:

Leaves are a favourite motif of mine and I use them all year round, but I particularly like the colours of autumn and it's always fun to transition to rusts and golds after enjoying the bright colours throughout the summer.

This is the simplest of cards! I stamped three of the leaves from Reverse Confetti's Fall Foliage, using Stazon ink. These were then watercoloured with autumnal colours, washing the colour over the outlines and allowing the colour to pool in interesting shapes. 

I finished with a popped up sentiment from Clearly Besotted, stamped, heat embossed and fussy cut with paper snips. The panel was cut to size with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle and attached to a card base.

So now it's your turn and I can't wait to see your leafy creations! The team has made some glorious cards to inspire you and you can check those out on the Addicted to CAS challenge website. You'll also find the Linky Tool there so that you can link up our own cards. Have fun - and don't forget we are a clean and simple challenge so don't forget to include plenty of that all important clear space!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge where Anything Goes; I'm also joining in again at CAS Mix Up where Leslie has chosen a theme of Autumn Colours with watercolouring; Also AAA Cards where they want to see up to 1/3rd of the card front used, with an optional theme of Leaves; I also think this works well for a masculine card so I'm linking up at The Male Room where the theme is Natures Bounty.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Just as the spring arrives in the Southern hemisphere, our mini heat wave here in England appears to be over and the leaves are turning in earnest now. My thoughts are beginning to turn to sweaters, autumn birthdays, tidying up the garden and trimming all the hedges and maybe even unearthing some warm throws and woollies to cosy up the living spaces. How about you? How do you get ready for the cooler weather?

Sending hugs,

How to do clean and simple and grungy

Hello, crafting friends!

It's a new month and we're welcoming Bhavya as our host for August at CAS Colours and Sketches :) She's got some great challenges coming up for you, starting with a fabulous colour palette:

This brought to my mind one of those moody, grungy, mixed media style panels - NOT very clean and simple... 

... unless you keep it small and surround it with heaps of lovely white space! To make the panel, I trimmed some card stock with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle. The background is made by sponging grey ink into Funky Fossil's Folk Floral Wallpaper stencil. I faded the ink towards the bottom right hand corner where I wanted the sentiment to be and when the stencil was removed, sponged ink on the top and left edges of the card stock.

The flowers and leaves are from Sugar Pea's Beautiful Books and were simply stamped over the top of the stencilling, with a little detail added with coloured pencils.

The sentiment is made with the lovely chunky 'thank' from Uniko's So Much and a die cut 'you' cut out of Rich Razzleberry card stock. The panel was mounted on a grey card stock mat before attaching to the card front. 

And now it's over to you! You'll find loads more inspiration from my teamies over at the CAS Colours and Sketches blog and you'll also find the Linky Tool there so that  you can link up your own creation. Have fun, but please remember we are a clean and simple challenge, so do include lots of lovely clear space :)

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Goes.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm feeling a little down today as I've just finished a book. It was one of those hostage books (what was I even thinking?!) written by a well-respected author whose books I really enjoy. In this novel, she brings the characters wonderfully to life and describes the trust gained between hostages and captors, enchanting me with an unlikely love story... and then kills some of them off. I'm devastated!

Sending hugs,

Tequila Sunrise flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

It's that fabulous time of the week when inspiration comes at you courtesy of CAS Colours and Sketches! Shannon is hosting this month and she's come up with a beauty of a sketch for you this week:

We love the rule of three don't we! I chose a flower from Stampin' Up's Pretty Perennials for my three shapes, stamping them in a pale yellow and then building up glowing colour with orange and red coloured pencils. They were fussy cut and centred with bright red enamel dots, then set aside while I made a background to set them off.

I wasn't letting up on the tropical colours, choosing to stencil hot pink stripes across a card base. I used a large striped stencil from Funky Fossil for this, masking off the stripes I didn't need. The flowers were attached in a row and I stamped a sentiment from Just For You by Clearly Besotted, which fit nicely below one of the flowers in the bottom stripe.

So now it's over to you! What shapes will you choose? I'm looking forward to seeing :) Hop on over to the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge blog where you'll find lots of inspiration from the team, as well as this month's guest star, Deborah Wheeler. You'll also find the Linky Tool there so that you can upload your own creation. Remember to keep it clean and simple with lots of lovely clear space!

CHALLENGES

Oh those colours at Just Us Girls this week! I couldn't wait to get crafting with those; I'm also joining in at Stamplorations Stencil challenge where Anything Goes; and I'm linking up at The Flower Challenge where this month's theme is Clean and Simple Flowers.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm afraid it's happened again... while I was making this card, all I could think about was a tequila sunrise cocktail! Anyone joining me? On second thoughts, it's probably best to wait until later as I believe it's frowned upon in some circles to be quaffing back the tequila sunrises at 10 o'clock in the morning lol!

Sending hugs,