A few of my favourite things!

A very Happy Friday my crafting friends

I made a card yesterday full of my favourite things and inspired by the photos of 2 of my favourite challenges, Fusion and Festive Friday.

Here it is:

The stamps are Uniko 'All Occasions #4'

My last entry to these challenges was so very far from my CAS style that I decided this time I wanted to make a card that made my heart happy-do you know what I mean?

I used all the crafty things that make me happy-scored lines, linen impression plates, silver embossing, enamel dots, one rounded corner and lots of white space. Oh this card feels so much more me. I know it is very CAS but it makes me smile!

Fusion-inspired the dots like the dots on the wreath and the use of silver and red plus the white space.

Festive Friday-inspired the use of pink and the white space like the plainly but classy wrapped presents.

     

Fusion and Festive Friday inspired!

Hello my friends,

My card today was inspired by the photos at Festive Friday and Fusion.

Can you believe it-I have patterned paper, die cuts, glitter card, embossing and a decorative background, all in one card! Yes, I really did make this! It turned out completely differently than I imagined but once I started I just kept getting different ideas and I have even followed the sketch at Fusion-not done very often! 

Here is where the inspiration came from:

Fusion-the doilies in the bacground, the silver, the music paper and based on the sketch

Festive Friday-the presents wrapped in pink and Kraft, the stars hanging on the tree-even my pink DSP has baby stars, the touches of gold-my sentiment.

I will also enter this into the 'Krafty Christmas' at The Card Concept. I am struggling with what style this is?? I would say it is clean and layered however not enough white space for this really...so have I made a 'Shabby, Vintage' card-doilies and the music sheet are kind of vintage-The Card Concept DT would love to know your thoughts!

I will also enter into Festive 48-Any Xmas card

The stamps I have used are all from Uniko-'decorative doilies' and 'Love Label-Christmas'

An unusual card for me but really fun to make on a dreary Friday afternoon and quite surprisingly, I like it.

              

Time Out reminder and Festive Friday.

A very Happy Friday Eve,

I am here to remind you that you still have time to enter our 'Home Sweet Home' photo challenge at Time Out Challenges.

First my card:

And our photo to inspire you:

I have again focused on the wreath but this time used a doily stamp to represent my wreath. I decided to go with the maroon card base when I saw the photo this week at Festive Friday-the maroon ribbon reminded me that I hadn't used this colour in any Holiday cards this year. And the doily idea was inspired by the Festive Friday DT member Geri-I loved her take on the photo.

So I guess you can say my card was a joint Time Out/Festive Friday combo!

Are you ready to take some TIME OUT and join in the fun at TIME OUT Challenges?

Here is the photo from Festive Friday

I will also enter this into:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge-keep it flat

52 Christmas Card Throwdown-colour challenge-I have red and green gems and red sentiment and my doily is sparking snow-touches of silver
Edited to add-I will enter this into CASology-Festive I thought you had to make a tag but no I didn't read that right, just some festive fun!

Festive Friday take 2

A very Happy Monday to you all,

I am popping in today with a card that was inspired by the photo at Festive Friday. I used the colours and got the idea from the love heart wrapping paper. This is hubby's Xmas card. I apologise that the photo is not good but I was having problems with the Winter Sun and in the end ran out of time!

I know this looks like it only took me 5 mins to do but this is probably took over an hour. After spending ages trying to thread a needle (must have been years since I did this) I didn't have enough red cotton to finish my 3 kisses! I had to hunt for some more and found some in one of those hotel sewing kits but it wasn't the same red-I started again. We won't discuss my second attempt at threading the needle!! Then I couldn't get a photograph with out shadows. Boy for a simple looking card this caused me a lot of pain. Hope hubby likes it!!

Have a fun day......I need a rest now.

Inkspirational #68

This week at Inkspirational we have this photo to inspire you:



There is so much to inspire you here. The obvious is owls but I am not a fan so spent some time thinking of a different angle. Eventually I came up with the idea of using wool or some kind of material. Then when I saw the challenge at Curtain Call and Festive Friday and I went with twine! Plus the lay out came from the latest sketch at STAMPlorations And this is what I came up with:

A negative die cut with lots and lots of strings of twine stuck to the base card. It doesn't take as long as you think and I was happy to be finally using my Xmas twine which has been in my stash for nearly a year. I thought this little sentiment was perfect for this design (STAMPlorations Holiday Artsy set)

Maura is our Guest Designer this week and you can find her here on Splitcoast Stampers. Her cards are always very creative and we are pleased to have her joining us this week.

You can see a wonderful collection of cards from the DT here and then have a good look at our photo and get creating!

I will enter this into the following challenges:

 Curtain Call-just getting in there on time although I made this card when the challenge came out!-burlap banner-see photo below

Festive Friday-one single bauble and lots of twine around gorgeous presents!

STAMPlorations Sketch Challenge

And our team leader at Inkspiratonal's challenge, Marina's Christmas card challenge-anything goes

         

Festive Friday.

Another week begins and I hope it is a good one for us all.

The photo at Festive Friday really caught my eye this week. It is so clean and crisp. I have been wanting to play along since I saw it. I just wanted to go white with a touch of red but it took me ages to come up with an idea but here it is:

I made this out of some left overs from a DT card that a made using a negative die. The bauble die cut was just sitting on my desk. I decided to have a go at using my one and only stencil, embossing paste and glitter to cover the die. It really does give a wonderful sparkly texture. I added a thin strip of red glitter card and a mix of sequins and gems to finish. I ended up getting the clean and crisp look I was after (took me 10 days to get the idea!!) Great how scraps on your desk inspire an idea.

I will also enter this into Marina's Festive 48 challenge-any Xmas card.

STAMPlorations October Challenge-stamps and embossing

And here is the photo that inspired my card from Festive Friday

Festive Friday Fun!

A very happy Friday to all,

My card today is for the photo challenge at Festive Friday. First my card then I have to tell you the little story behind its invention!!

I have been wanting to make a card for this challenge since I saw the photo last week but no ideas came to mind. I couldn't seem to get the wood grain out of my head but then today the reminder post came up and I had a ping moment....or so I thought. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. However I started making my card then thought...I think I have made this before and yes I had here admittedly using a lighter green ink. So what to do??? I stared at the card and thought how can I change this so I can enter it as I still loved the design and thought it was so right for the photo. Another ping moment came....add dimension. So I stamped the garland again on scrap card and fussy cut it out just adding one gem. I added these garlands just above and below the ones stamped on the main card using foam pads. And changed the sentiment. 

I thought this was a little lesson for myself-how to refresh a design you love using different design elements. And I think I like this design better!

I have to say I am slightly concerned that my memory is so bad I thought I had had a brand new idea!!

I will also enter this into:

  Virginia's View Challenge CAS (sorry Virginia I have a few more entries for this over the coming week!!)

Marina's Festive 48-Any Xmas card Goes

All my stamps are from Uniko Studios

Have a Festive Friday x

Addicted to Stamps and More #113

It is our 'Holiday' challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More. You can choose any holiday you want. I have gone for Christmas. I like to use non-traditional colours and this card if no exception!

This card was inspired the combo of 2 photo challenges. First off I adore the pink car colour in the photo at Fusion this week. I actually had it in mind to make a Christmas card with a cityscape and car all based around this pink colour card I have used in this card but then I saw the photo at Festive Friday this week. This photo took me in a different direction as I liked the use of the soft pink and white-this is where my white embossing and DSP came from. So the combo of photos really did take me in a completely different direction than I had intended but that is inspiration for you! (I still want to make the pink car Xmas card car!)

At Addicted to Stamps and More we are being sponsored by Eureka Stamps and our team have some fabulous Holiday cards for you here

Have fun!

       

At last!

This week my crafting mojo was taking a holiday. I have not made a card in over a week and have not really felt like it. However today, at last, I saw a few challenges that inspired me to sit down at my crafting desk and create. And I am pleased because the finished result I do really like.

First my card and then the inspiration behind it:

I was inspired by the fabulous photo at Festive Friday. The soft pinks and silver gave me the idea for the colours, silver embossing and the vellum. I used the sketch at Fusion. flipping it-I added the extra sheer ribbon but I when I had completed the card using the sketch, I felt my card needed something to ground my dove and sentiment and add more interest to the left hand side.

At Uniko Studios Bev and her DT are re-visiting the 'Peace on Earth' stamp set I have used here and this gave me plenty of ideas. 

I hope Mrs mojo is back to stay!

I will also link this up to Marina's Festive 48-week 35 Any Xmas card goes.

Enjoy your day xx

     

TIME OUT Challenge Reminder

Happy Friday Eve to all.

Over at TIME OUT Challenges we are announcing the winners of our last challenge so don't forget to go and check it out. And today I have a card that will hopefully inspire you to join in our current CASE challenge. We are CASEing the fabulous crafter Anita. My card today was inspired by her layout but also was heavily influenced by a few other challenges in blogland. 

First off my card:

I really wanted to play along at Festive Friday this week because as soon as I saw the photo I thought of kraft and white. I was going to use embossed snowflakes until I saw that at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown the challenge is 'Mistletoe and Wine'. The idea for this card immediately came into my head...I do love it when that happens!

I stamped the mistletoe and then decided to go over the stamping with a glitter pen to add some Xmas sparkle. And to take the white theme further I used a white pen to add some berries. 

I will also add this to Marina's Christmas card gallery.

Here is Anita's card:

And the photo from Festive Friday:

Addicted to Stamps and More #108

Its time for our 'Holiday' challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More. You can create a project using any Holiday you want. I have opted for Christmas and did use a few other challenges to help inspire me to create this card:

This week at Addicted to Stamps and More we are being sponsored by Rick St.Dennis and we are lucky enough to have one of their DT joining us today-welcome Karen. There are some fab images in their store so please do visit them and take a look. As always our DT have come up with some wonderful projects to inspire you-take a look here.

Now for my inspiration-the picture at Festive Friday gave me the idea for the snowy wreath. I went with a one layer card so I could enter the 'Foliage OLC' challenge at Less is More and finally I was unsure about using a black sentiment but saw the 'Tic Tac Toe' challenge at CAS-ual Fridays and one of the lines is 'Black, White and Sequins'. This gave me the idea of tying in the black sentiment with one single black sequin-this seemed to balance it to my eye plus the sentiment is from CAS-ual Fridays so an added benefit!

This card came together really quickly thanks to all these pieces of inspiration fitting nicely together in my little brain! Isn't it great when this happens?

I hope you join us at Addicted to Stamps and More x

      

Addicted to Stamps and More #93

Time for our 'Holiday' challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More and time for me to make another Christmas card! You can choose any hols you want to or even something that just reminds you of a holiday.

I have loved for a long time the snowflake stamps and dies from Uniko Studios so was very excited to use these for this challenge. And here is my card:

I had previously made another card for this challenge but changed my mind when I saw this photo at Festive Friday Challenge

The wood grain and red star inspired me immediately. I love the look of white card stock embossed with wood grain and that big red star inspired me to die cut my large snowflake die with glitter red card. I added the simple small sentiment not to distract from the snowflake and also as I thought this would be great for the 'Bright Sparks' challenge at Keep it Simple.

This week our DT have got some fab projects to inspire you and we are sponsored by A Random Fan-you could win 3 of their very cool digis!

I will also enter this into the 'glitter stash' challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown and the 'Sparkle and Shimmer' challenge at CAS on Sunday

Marina my DT teamie at Inkspirational has challenges herself to make one Christmas card per week and asks us to join in and link up and I finally have a card to add to her fun!

Now it is your time to play along and have some fun x

Addicted to Stamps and More

It is time for our 'Holiday' challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More. You can choose any holiday you want or something related to holidays. I have gone with Christmas this time. And here is my card:

STAMPlorations are sponsoring us this week and I wanted to showcase one of their stamp sets called 'Holiday Artsy', actually it is my favourite STAMPlorations set! 

This card was actually inspired by 3 challenges. The silver jewel snowflake at Festive Friday caught my eye last week and I embossed one of my snowflakes to represent this. I loved the sketch this week at CAS(E) this sketch and used this as my lay out. And finally for over a week I have been wanting to enter the one layer challenge at CAS on Sunday and although I make OLC quite a lot, once I decided I wanted to enter this challenge my mind went blank until these other challenges gave me my idea!

I was happy with the result and the one little gem just seemed the perfect finishing touch.

This week we are very lucky that Anni is joining us as our Guest Designer and her card this week is full of holiday cheer! Check her card and all the inspiration from our DT here.

         

Then time to get into the Holiday spirit and join in the fun!

Addicted to Stamps and More #83

This week at Addicted to Stamps and More we have our Holiday Challenge. It can be a specific Holiday in the year or themed around a holiday such as a beach holiday or a skiing holiday.

This week we have Cathy as our Guest Designer. She has created a fabulous Holiday project for us this week, check it out here and also have a browse through her blog...I am sure you will be inspired.

I have made my first Christmas card this year for this challenge:

I based the layout on the sketch this week at CAS(E) this Sketch and I was inspired to go with the white textured base and the pops of red when I saw the photo this week at Festive Friday. I am enjoying mixing up gems, enamel dots and sequins to give a less uniform look. I like the look but have pretty much run out of gems now so need to get ordering!

This week we are sponsored by SmartArt Designs who are offering our winner 5 free digis.

Don't forget to take visit our blog here to see what the rest of the DT have made to inspire you.

                           

Time to buy the Tree!

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends-have a wonderful day.

I usually am quite organised and like to get my Xmas tree the first weekend in December. However, this year things have been on hold for a while, so we will be shopping for the tree a little later than normal. This didn't stop me making a card based on Xmas tree shopping and here it is:

We don't actually use our car to transport our tree. Hubby carries it from our local shop! This was a fun card to make using the city scape PTI stamps.

I am going to enter this into the following challenges:

CASology-shop
Festive Friday-trees
Craft A Scene-trees
So Artful Challenges-trees



Enjoy your day x

Let it Snow

Happy Monday my friends,


Today I have a card for you that was inspired by a number of challenges. I had one of those light bulb moments when browsing challenges to get my mojo back in gear. I actually was inspired to make a couple of cards all based on challenges I came across. Today I will share one with you and the other one later in the week.

Here is my first card:

This card was inspired by the following challenges:

CAS(E) this Sketch-I based my layout on this week sketch-actually this is where the inspiration started!

Curtain Call-Casual Christmas-all my stamps are CAS-ual Friday Stamps

CAS on Sunday-Winter theme

Addicted to Stamps-embossing

Festive Friday -snowflakes in the design

CAS-ual Fridays-use 8-I used 8 snowflakes including the one in the sentiment.

        

Isn't it fab when it all comes together! x

Addicted to CAS Challenge #24

Today our hostess at Addicted to CAS is the super talented Christine. She has chosen as her code word 'Transparent'

This was a challenge for me! However, after blog hopping and visiting Pinterest a few times I eventually came up with this:

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

I have used CAS-ual Friday stamps plus a few stickers I found in my stash. I do love how this turned out. I got the idea for the transparent front after seeing this card from Anita. And I loved this card from Lynn and that inspired my design. If you are stuck with a challenge just have a little hunt around blogland and inspiration will soon come (well, not always!)

Our DT have really come up with some great and varied ideas. Take a look here and don't forget to visit their blogs and leave them some love!

And this week Nicecrane Designs are offering our winner a $20 gift voucher to spend in their fabulous store.

I am looking forward to seeing what you create and visiting your blogs.

I am also entering this into the Whimsical Challenge at Festive Friday

Enjoy your day x