Guest Designing at 'The Challenge' #34

Hi All,

Today I am Guest Designing again at 'The Challenge'. I am so happy to be Guest Designing for such an amazing team.

Today we have this colour challenge for you:

I immediately thought flowers but I have scheduled a few flower posts later in the week and some actually using these colours, so I decided to go with leaves. I inked up these baby leaves from Clearly Besotted Stamps in the three colours.

I like the crisp look of this card and we all need some one layer cards we can pop in the post for our far away buddies!

I hope you can join in the fun at The Challenge

I will enter this into the 'stamps and leaves' challenge at STAMPlorations-the sentiment 'celebrate' is from STAMPlorations

Enjoy!

Time Out Reminder

Hello my friends,

Have you joined in our challenge at Time Out Challenges?

We are being inspired by the words:

ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK

You can use any of these words to inspire you or just use the whole phrase.

I think you can see what inspired my card:

These stamps and dies are all from Clearly Besotted Stamps. I think this will be kept for a 'guy' Birthday card.

Our Guest Designer Hazel has joined us again this week with a super CAS card and you can check that out here where you will also see all the DT's wonderful cards.

You have one week to take some TIME OUT with us-enjoy!

Time Out #15

Happy Friday Eve and that must mean it is time for a new challenge at TIME OUT Challenges. It is out Theme challenge and we have this for you:

STAMPING with the optional twist of APPLES

Basically your project must include some kind of stamping even if it is just the sentiment...we want to see some ink!!

If you feel like twisting with us this week by using an apple/apples on your project you could be in for a chance of winning a prize from our fabulous sponsor Avocado Arts (chosen by random.org)

Our Guest Designer this week is the very talented and creative Loll. We are so excited that Loll is joining us this week. Her creativity is boundless and I urge you to visit her blog Stamping with Loll. I guarantee you will be inspired!

 I decided not to twist this week and here is my card:

I got the idea for this card when I saw the colour challenge at The Card Concept. I went for a CAS design (no surprise there!) and started off using lime green on my stamps and then mixed it up with some yellow and red in varying levels. I really like how it turned out and forgot how cool it is just to ink up a stamp in different colours and see where it takes you. 

The lay out for the card comes is from the sketch this week at CAS(E) this Sketch cutting down the layers to make a one layer card.

My stamps are all from Clearly Besotted Stamps (Autumn Flowers)

Our DT have all made some fabulous designs this week some have twisted and some have not. Take a look here.

Now it is your turn to take some TIME OUT and get inky!!

edited to add-I will also enter this into the 'Flutter' challenge at CASology-my leaves are fluttering down!

     

Sequin CAS for Bev!

Well we made it to Friday!

Ardyth and Darnell are holding a linky Birthday party for the lovely Bev. I am a little late to the party but I have a card today that I thought Bev would find fun! So Happy Belated Birthday Bev. Her blog Happy Dance is full of inspiration and lots of fun and if you don't know Bev I urge you to pop over and be inspired!

I have a 'cheats' version of a shaker card to share with you for Bev. I started out to make a shaker card but totally forgot that I needed acetate and came up with the idea of gluing the sequins down using glossy accents. It really does work. I have turned it upside down, have put it in an envelope and given it a good old shake and they all just stay there!!

I used Wink of Stella on the card behind the sequins but it didn't show up in the photo above so I have taken another one.I hope you can see the sparkle here!

I am entering this into the Autumn challenge at Clearly Besotted Stamps and I got the idea for this when I saw this card from DT member and the Queen of CAS Aimes! The die cut is 'Autumn Flowers' from Clearly Besotted Stamps

I had been thinking about this card for a few days as I wanted to enter the 'sequin celebration' challenge at CAS on Sunday with a shaker card but wanted to make it as CAS as I could. White sequins and white textured card helped me create this! I am going to use my 'cheats' shaker card again....I am thinking this would be good for a Xmas card and can see another entry to Festive Friday on the way....if time allows!

I hope you like my card and are enjoying your party!

Inkspirational #59

A very Happy Saturday to you all,

I am here with our new challenge at Inkspirational but first I wanted to say that I loved visiting your blogs with our CAS challenge last week. We had so many fabulous entries. Thank you so much for supporting us!

We have a colour challenge for you this week and it is:

You can use any shades of blue and you can add black and realistic colours for skin, hair and fur but no other colours.

I found this challenge a challenge! Not sure why really but I think when I am faced with set colours to use my mind goes a little blank. Also I was trying to get this made before I went on holiday and think when I am faced with a deadline creativity escapes me! However I hunted through some other challenges and came across an 'Anything Goes' challenge at Clearly Besotted Stamps. This helped so far I don't have too many CBS sets, so I got them out and had a 'ping' moment to create my card. I used some turquoise embossing powder for the CBS sentiment and then various other blues for the Uniko Studios flower stamps. The more I look at this though I think they could be snowflakes so this may end up as a Christmas card! I was pleased to use this cream card stock as I haven't used it for a while.

Our Guest Designer this week is Laura who is super talented and her blog is just full of inspiration, check out Le-Design Boutique and she her wonderful creations.

And our DT have created some fabulous projects so please go and check them out here

Have fun x

Addicted to Stamps and More #96

At Addicted to Stamps and More we are starting our 'Anything Goes' Challenge. This week we are sponsored by Rick St Dennis Digital Stamps-check out their great store!

I decided to use a couple of challenges to inspire my card this week. I got the idea for the lay out from the sketch this week at CAS(E) this Sketch and the colours from the latest challenge at Clearly Besotted Stamps.

And here is what I came up with:

I apologise for the poor photo but the light was not good when I took this and it was the only time I had free.

Our team have lots to inspire you this week. Take a look here to see what they have made for you this week. Then get stamping my friends x

               

Addicted to CAS #38

This week at Addicted to CAS our host is the very talented Marie and she has chosen the following code words:

And this is my take using the sketch this week at CAS(E) this Sketch (I flipped it)

Used my Clearly Besotted Stamps and dies-they are getting some use this week!

We are very happy that our Guest Designer for this challenge is Darnell. If you are not aware of Darnell then you really should visit her blog Djkardkreations as not only is she a very talented but her posts will brighten your day...check them out and you will see what I mean!

We are sponsored by Stamp Art Designs who have a great store-check it out here.

If you pop over to our main blog here you will see all the different and inventive ways our DT have interpreted 'off the edge'

Can't wait to see what you come up with-Enjoy!

Time Out Challenge #5

Happy Friday Eve and you know what that means??? Yep it is time for you to take some time out to craft and join in our new challenge at TIME OUT Challenges.

This week we have our 'Inspired by words' challenge and this week we have this phrase for you

'Time Flies, Love Lasts'

You can be inspired by the whole phrase or just one single word. For example you might want to use 'Love' or 'Flies' and make a paper crafting project inspired by just this word....butterflies comes to mind and we all love them! 

I went with the whole phrase and this is what I came up with:

I chose the whole phrase as when my parents celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary I gave them some champagne flutes engraved with these words. 50 years is long time and I am not so sure they will say it has all flown but the love has lasted and that is a very special!

This week at TIME OUT we have one of my favourite card makers as our Guest Designer, Karen. Her blog Made By Meadie is well worth a visit as her designs are so inspiring and we are very honoured to have her join us this week.

Our DT have all interpreted our phrase in their own unique way, so please pop over to our blog and take a look here. Then get inky my friends and the winner will be offered the chance to be a Guest Designer for us in a future challenge.

Have fun!

These are all Clearly Besotted Stamps and dies.

I will enter this into the 'button' challenge at Catered Crop and the photo challenge at (Pin)spirational Challenges-here is their photo:

TIME OUT Winners and Challenge Reminder!

Today we are announcing our winners over at TIME OUT, so pop over and find out if you are one!

There is still time to join in our current challenge:

Happy Birthday with the optional twist if a Masculine Birthday

We have some fab prizes this week from our super sponsor Uniko Studios, check out the details here.

My card today is made to hopefully give you a little inspiration. This week I decided not to add the twist and make a girly card.

I have used the Uniko Studio stamps A Gift For You (love those faux sequins!)and Background Builder: Round in Circles and combined these with the sentiment from the 'Time to Celebrate' stamp set from Clearly Besotted Stamps which performed surgery on then gold heat embossed!

Why not take some time out and join in our Happy Birthday challenge at TIME OUT Challenges

Inkspirational #54

Good Morning All!

The weekend is here and that means it is time for a new challenge at Inkspirational. This week we have the 'Designer's Chioce' and this week the super talented Shauna has chosen the following sketch for us:

This sketch certainly did challenge me and I have used a CAS version of the sketch but I have to say that the centre shape pattern did keep reminding me of a clock. This led me to create this card using Clearly Besotted Stamps

My little alarm clock die is on foam pads for dimension and I couldn't resist adding in a little enamel dot both for fun and I felt I needed one more colour. I do love this and it is so easy to re-create using different colours depending on who it is for.

At Inkspirational this week our Guest Designer is Elaine and she has made a collection of cards to inspire you. They are fabulous-check them out here where you will see all the cards our DT have made this week.

When looking through Clearly Besotted Pinterest board for some ideas of using my 'Time to Celebrate' card I saw this card by Stephanie and realised my card today is very similar. I am not sure if I saw Stephanie's card before but may well have and it sneaked out when making this but I felt she deserved some credit here as my card really does look very similar-so thank you Stephanie x

And don't forget our DT call is still running!!

Addicted to Stamps and More #87

At Addicted to Stamps and More it is time for our CAS challenge. We want to see clean and simple projects. You know I love this challenge as I am a CAS loving girl! My card this week was inspired by the challenge at Case Study. I loved the card by their March Muse Joni. And here is my CASE of her card:

I loved the layout and kept it the same but did my own CAS version. I used masking to give the appearance of layers instead of die cuts and faux stitching instead of real! I loved how it turned out and naturally I had to mix up my enamel dots to add a splash of unexpected colour!

 This week at Addicted to Stamps and More our Guest Designer is the super talented Bonnie. You can check out her card and the rest of the cards from the DT here

We are sponsored by StampArt Designs this week and the winner will get 5 free digis!!

I will also enter this into the 'faux or real stitching' challenge at CASon Sunday

Here is Joni's card that inspired me:

Enjoy this challenge!

Inkspirational 53

This week at Inkspirational we are having our 'case' one of our Design Team. This week it is a little weird for me as it is my turn! On our main blog there are a few of my cards that have been chosen that you could case. You could use one of these cards to case or you could take a look at my pinterest account and flickr account and choose any other card (you can find these on the my right hand side bar).

This challenge actually came at the right time as I had sent my Aunt a card recently and she asked if I would make a set of notelets for her using the same design. I did this but decided to make each one slightly different.

This week are have a fabulous Guest Designer Sandie L, Check out her amazing blog here

Here is the original card which was inspired by a card that I saw by the super talented Aimes a while ago:

And here is one of the notelets I made my aunt. This one use the leaf has been die cut from some water coloured paper. I had been playing around with water colouring and this was left in my stash! The sentiment is from Uniko Studios

And here is a closer look at the water colour leaf-check out I was also playing with gold spritz! As I said last week... never throw away those discarded scraps!

And finally here is the full set of notelets

Our DT have all CASEd one of my cards and done an amazing job, I feel very honoured. Take a look here and why not have a play. I would be so chuffed if you had a play and will love coming to visit your blogs.

We are also having a DT call at Inkspirational, so why not pop over to out main site and check out the details.If you haven't been on a DT before we are keen for you to have a go!

Enjoy!

Addicted to Stamps and More #87

Its 'Make your Mark' time at Addicted to Stamps and More. This challenge is to use some kind of marker on our project. 

This week we have Anni as our Guest Designer-please do welcome her and visit her blog here to be inspired! 

STAMPlorations are sponsoring us again this week and I have used the leaf stamp from the this stamp set. You could win the clear stamp set Its All About You.

Here is what I came up with using water colour paints:

I was inspired by Virginia's card on this post that I saw at Virginia's View Challenge this month. This leaf has been die cut from a piece of watercolour paper that I had experimented with a while ago and decided it was a disaster but had left it in my stash. Then I saw Virginia die cut a butterfly and had a 'ping' moment! I had previously heat embossed a wood grain stamp using clear embossing powder then painted over this with water colour paint. I wasn't happy with the result so discarded it! However when I die cut my leaf out of this I loved the effect of the wood grain. My die cut leaf is from Clearly Besotted Stamps

The sketch at Fusion inspired my lay out.

Now it is your turn to play along but first don't forget to visit our blog and see what the DT have come up with this week to inspire you!

I will enter this into Virginia's View Challenge and Fusion

        

Addicted to CAS #25

This week at Addicted to CAS our hostess is the very talented and inspiring Kylie. She has chosen 'One Layer' as our code word this fortnight.

When I saw this challenge I remembered this partial die-cutting tutorial that Kylie did on her blog to make this card. I remember how much I loved this butterfly card and, at the time, I tried out this tutorial with no success! However I really wanted to try this again but using falling leaves. This time I had more success and came up with this:

(hover over the image and click on the pin to save to pinterest)

This is a one layer CASE of my own card here that I did a few challenges ago. I really wanted to get some more use out of my Autumn Flowers stamps from Clearly Besotted Stamps and with the help of Kylie's tutorial I CASED by own card but with this cool partial die-cutting technique.

Our DT have some great one layer examples to inspire you to create. Please take a look here. And this challenge we are being sponsored by Digi Darla Designs-5 digis for the winner!

I am also going to enter this into the 'Country' challenge at CASology and the photo inspiration challenge (the falling leaves was my inspiration) at Papercraft Star and the 'one layer card with orange' at One Layer Wednesday and 'entralled with fall' at Trigger Tuesday
So, now over to you and happy Stamping x

Inspiration!

Today I had one of those inspiration moments when you see a few challenges and 'ping' an idea comes into your head.
First of, the sketch this week from CAS(E) this Sketch was just so fab I knew I would be using it. Then I saw Elena's invitation at Case Study-here I loved the wood effect and the pop of colour. And finally I saw the card Aimes on the DT had created to inspire us. I loved Aimes card and knew I wanted to CASE this but with my own little twist. Instead of using wood for the die cut leaf, I used some card that is embossed with a very subtle pattern. Then I used the wood idea on the base card and embossed that with wood grain. For my pop of colour I wanted to keep my card 'Autumn' based and used orange for the sentiment and some orange twine. Keeping in with these colours meant I could also add this to the 'Autumn' challenge at Clearly Besotted Stamps-the die cut and sentiment are both from Clearly Besotted Stamps (Autumn Flowers)
And here is the card that I was inspired to make:

(hover over the image and click on the pin to save to pinterest)

I love how the embossing turned out. This is being sent to my Uncle and Aunt just because!

And a drum roll please for all the inspiration that led me to this:

            

And Aimes card that I just loved and cased (thanks Aimes)

Happy Stamping x

Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #65

My second post in almost as many hours! But this time I am posting my card for our photo challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More. Our photo this week is bursting with inspiration.......take a look:

Isn't it just fabulous! There is so much you could take from this-the colours, the variety of fruit, flowers, leaves and so much more.

I had to go with the Autumn theme and went directly to my 'Autumn Flowers stamps by Clearly Besotted Stamps. 

(hover over the image and click on the red button to pin it to your Pinterest board)

I masked off an area using post it notes and blended various inks to give this Autumn glow. I then stamped the leaves in brown and added the gorgeous sentiment from Verve. And used my linen impression plate to give my card texture.

The DT have come up with some fabulous projects to inspire you. Please take a peek at them here.

If you need some extra inspiration, this week Nicecrane Designs are sponsoring us and you could win a $20 gift voucher!

This picture for me was all the inspiration I needed and I hope you feel the same and are already getting inky and stamping away!!

I am also going to enter this into the 'Harvest' challenge at CASology, my sentiment prompting me to add this,

Addicted to CAS #23

Its time for our next challenge at Addicted to CAS. This fortnight the very talented CAS designer Sylvia is our hostess and she has chosen the following, very seasonal, code word for us:

In England this time of year is Autumn but we don't mind what you call it! We just want to see projects that are inspired by Autumn/Fall. This is my favourite season. I love to walk through the park and just look in wonder at the amazing colours that surround me. Each day your eyes are filled with a new and changing painting of beautiful colours. The sentiment on my card today really says it all! And the sentiments and images also make my card suitable for this weeks 'Autumn' challenge at CASology 

(hover over the image and click on the pin to save to pinterest)

This is a pre-scheduled post as I am actually now on holiday in the sun! However, when I made this card it was the first time I had used these stamps and dies from Clearly Besotted Stamps. Aren't they gorgeous?  I am sure that I will have used them plenty of times since making this card.

We are very pleased that The Paper Nest Dolls our sponsoring this challenge. The DT have made some outstanding projects to inspire you to play along with us. Pop over to our blog here and take a look then get stamping your Autumn projects my friends x

Happy Hols to me!

 Hello my crafting friends,

This is my last post before I fly away to Cyprus tomorrow. I have some pre-scheduled posts for my design teams, so I won't be completely absent from blogland!

Today my card is for CAS-ual Fridays 'Fall Colours and a Leaf' challenge.

My card was inspired by this card that Loll posted last week. I loved her idea of embossing a leaf with gold. I have used the same stamp set from Clearly Besotted Stamps that I used yesterday but this time I also used the die. I blended Autumn coloured inks onto my card stock then die cut the leaf. I then stamped and heat embossed in gold. The leaf is just stunning on its own and a CAS design was the way I had to go with it. I just scored a few lines then spritz the card with gold shimmer ink to give the splatter look. This card was so hard to photograph in this dull English weather! Here are 2 shots that hopefully give you some idea.

O.K my blogging friends I am off to pack!

Take care and see you soon x

Greetings Autumn!

I am popping in quickly to share a card a made yesterday using the 'Autumn Flowers' stamps from Clearly Besotted Stamps. I wanted to try out some masking with one of the stamps and had a lot of fun making this card:

The design was inspired by this photo at Pinspirational Challenges

I am going to enter it this challenge and the 'make your own background' challenge at Clearly Besotted Stamps.

Tomorrow I will be posting another card I made using these stamps and dies but a more CAS version.

I have to run now as I am going on hols very early Wed morning and am in the middle of getting myself sorted!

Have a great day x

An Autumn Inspired Christmas!

Another week begins and today I am starting the week full of Christmas joy.

Today I have used my new Autumn Flowers Clearly Besotted Stamps to make a Xmas card. I just stamped the leaves in red and added some glossy accents to the die cut leaf and viola.....a Xmas card!

(hover over the image and click on the image to safe to pinterset)

I used the sketch from Shery's challenge blog-STAMPloations Holiday Papercrafting challenge. Shery makes some great cards and I urge you to check out her blog here. I did a CAS take on the sketch (had to stay true to my CAS loving heart!)

I am also going to enter this into Jackie's Poppy Red Pantone Colour Challenge- a new custom designed blog header is on offer here! I have one colour left to make before the deadline on Sept 22nd so I need to get my skates on!

Shery's Sketch

Enjoy the rest of your day and stay away from the Monday Blues x