Addicted to CAS #54 and Goodbye

Today at Addicted to CAS our challenge is hosted by the very creative Shana and she has chosen the following code word:



I decided to use my new die from Clearly Besotted Stamps for this code word-all families live in 'Homes!!'

I have gone a bit crazy with the embossing here and although hard to see from this photo I have popped the little houses up on foam pads for dimension. The snowflakes and sentiment are both from Uniko Studio.

We are sponsored by Stamp Art design and you could win some of their fab digis!

Our DT have all made some great cards and you can see them here

Now it is your turn!

I will enter this into:

The Mixed Media Card Challenge-home

Just us Girls-mixed media

This is my last DT post for Addicted to CAS and I would love to thank all the team for their support and inspiration whilst I have been on this amazing team. And finally to thank Kylie for being such a super team leader-highly organised, efficient and full of fun-thanks for choosing me to be on this team. I am still on Kylie's team at Addicted to Stamps and More so you can't get rid of me too easily!!

     

Addicted to Stamps and More #111

This week at Addicted to Stamps and More it is our Anything Goes Challenge but we have an optional twist of Get Well/Thinking of You. We are doing this as Marie one of our original DT members here and currently on the DT of Addicted to CAS is having a rough time and we wanted to cheer her up. So you can make any kind of card but we would love it if you made a card with our optional twist to put a smile on Marie's face.
So Marie, here is my card dedicated to you:

This card was made immediately after I saw the photo at Fusion this week combined with the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch. They come out at about the same time and when I saw them I had a 'ping' moment and got stamping and water colouring. I was inspired by the brick wall and colours in the photo. This brick stamp has never been used before but it gave the perfect angle I wanted to fit in with the sketch. The hummingbird was water coloured (my new fine brush coming in very useful here!) and fussy cut out, popped up for dimension.This stamp is from Uniko Studios.

I hope you like your card Marie and I hope it cheered you up a bit-thinking of you hon x

AAA cards game this week is CAS and water colouring so I am entering this challenge. And the Mixed Media Card Challenge is looking for Autumn colour and as I have brown, yellow and red I am going to enter here too.

This week our sponsor is Stamp Art Designs and you have chance to win some digis from their fabulous store.

The DT have come up with some great cards to inspire you.

Hope you can join us x

             

Inkspirational #63

Its time for a new challenge at Inkspirational. We had a record number of entries in our last challenge and had a lot of fun visiting all your blogs. This week it is our colour challenge and these are the colours we have for you:

You can use any 2 of these colours or all 3. Any shades of these colours are allowed plus black, white and cream. You may also use realistic colours for skin, fur and hair but no other colours.

Here is my card using all 3 colours:

I got out my water colour pencils again and had a go at freehand drawing a butterfly and then using the watercolour pencils in our colours to create this card. I added a few white sequins as I felt it needed a bit more interest. I loved painting this and just went with the flow not really knowing how it would turn out!

Our DT have made a super collection of inspiring cards using these colours, check them out here and then get crafty!

I will enter this into:

The Mixed Media Card Challenge-summer

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge-Summer

TIME OUT Challenges #12

Friday Eve has finally come around again and that means it is time for a new challenge at TIME OUT Challenges.

I am very excited about this challenge as we are getting the chance to CASE one of my all time favourite crafters Anita. I found Anita's blog pretty soon after I started blogging and immediately fell in love with her CAS creations. She continues to inspire me and is one of the kindness most encouraging crafters in our community, always visiting blogs and leaving comments to enthuse us to create more. Check out her blog My Papercraft World and be inspired!

Here is my take on Ainta's card:

I was inspired by the colours, layout and die cut sentiment in Anita's card here:

This is the first time I have used a stencil! It took me ages to position and layer up the die cut sentiments but I got there in the end. Thanks Anita for the inspiration!

Our Guest Designer this week is Shona. I have recently discovered Shona's blog Twine Around and I can tell you her creativity is amazing. I urge you to go and sign up to her blog so you don't miss out!

Before you kick back and take TIME OUT to create with us, take a look here at the wonderful cards our team have created for you

I will enter this into the August challenge at STAMPlorations-stamping and die cuts and  SS work it Wednesday-blue and finally the Mixed Media Card Challenge-Summer

Uniko Studio Release Day!

Today is a very happy Monday as it is the Release Day at Uniko Studio. You have had all the sneak peeks and intro days and today you have chance to see more examples of how to use the sets, a blog hop with chance to win the whole release sets. Plus you can actually go right over to the store here and start purchasing these amazing stamps. And, TODAY ONLY, if you spend over £25 or more you will get free world wide shipping!

The details of the blog hop you can find on the main Uniko Studio Blog. But basically you need to leave a comment on my blog, all the blogs of the Design Team and the Uniko Blog. Do this and you could win the entire release....that is four sets of the most stunning stamps!!

Here is the order of the blog hop:

Amber
Erika
Gillian
N@Ali
Nicki
Taheerah
Sarah-all Guest Designing for this month-congrats Sarah x
Sandie-you are here!

It is my last day as the Guest Designer for Uniko Studio and I have a couple more cards to share with you using the release stamps.

First up is I am showcasing 'Flower Power #6' with a sentiment from an older set 'Flower Power #1'

I was inspired to make this when I saw the picture at Fusion this week. I loved all the pale colours with the pops of blue and green, plus I did loosely use the sketch this week-quite unusual for me but it was my starting point when creating the design. The picture at The Runway Inspired challenge this week also helped me develop my idea of the vellum-it looks like the model's top-see photo below

This time I stamped the base of the flower in the pops of colours from the Fusion photo directly onto the card base. I then used the second part of the flower stamp embossing it on vellum with white embossing powder. I tried to curl the edges of the vellum so you would see more of these Summer colours. I popped these up on foam pads to give dimension. I looked at the card for a bit but decided something was missing and three little black gems sorted this for me. The linen impression plate gave the card more texture.

This Flower Power set is full of possibilities and well worth popping into your shopping basket!

I will enter this into Fusion-see photo and sketch below and the Mixed Media Card Challenge with a Summer these-mine being flowers and colours.

Now my second card for you today using the new 'Sweet Baby' stamp set:

I have again used white embossing but this time on this cute little baby suit. I think this is the first time I have embossed on to patterned paper but I thought it would give the soft look I wanted for a baby card. I used vellum again but this time stamped the sentiment directly onto the vellum. As I had no more of this patterned paper I decided to add my own outline of white dots onto the blue card using a white pen. I got the layout for this card from this week's sketch at STAMPlorations-see below.

I have had such a fun week being GDT for Uniko Studio and thank Bev for giving this honour. I hope I have inspired you along the way and have got you to do some shopping!!

Now it is time for you to go staright over to the main Uniko Studio Blog and start hopping!

         

More Rainbows!

This is round 2 for this post as I hadn't finished writing it earlier and then posted and deleted it...boy my brain is not in gear today!! So here goes again!

I made this card yesterday after coming across a sentiment stamp I hadn't used before. It reminded me that at Less is More this week the theme is 'Singing in the Rain'. I wanted to water colour so made this:

I did at first mask off the area to make my rainbow but after taking off the tape it just looked too uniform. So I just added more paint and water, swished about a bit and let the colours run into one another....oh I just realised I could add this to the 'run' challenge at CASology as this is exactly what I did...turned the paper all ways so that the paint would run more and be less uniform.

I will also enter it into the 'nature' challenge at The Mixed Media Challenge as I do love the texture of this paper and think it really shows up in this photo. I am sure they are fed up with me over there as I have entered so many times but I kinda like the fact that I am making CAS mixed media cards and I really thought I would never be able to do this!

Now I need to rest my brain...goodbye x

Oops....Inspiration all around again!!

I am having blogger problems this morning or really Sandie problems! I seem to have deleted my last few posts so I am having another go and so sorry if this is the second time you have seen it...just ignore it!!

First off my post for Addicted to Stamps and More. We have this photo for you:

And here is the card I made:

I loved the purple and the lay out and took inspiration from here. The sketch at CAS(E) this sketch helped with my final design. The photo at Fusion was also helped when creating this card as I got the idea to emboss my butterfly on vellum (a first for me!)-this idea came from the icing-this is also why I added brown to my card as there is brown icing on the cakes. And as I used Uniko Studio stamps I am entering this into their 'Anything Goes' challenge. And finally a CAS mixed media card with a touch of nature for the Mixed Media Challenge.

And at Addicted to Stamps and More we have QKR Stampede as our sponsors.

Now I hope I got in all I had in the first post that I deleted, now I am not sure if I have to re-add my card to these challenges but will!

    

More Rainbows and Butteflies!

Happy Tuesday all,

I finally have started crafting again after my hols! I have a card today to share that I loved making as I tried out something new to me and also got to play with my watercolours again! I was inspired to make this card when I saw the inspiration card at the new challenge The Cutting Edge. And it was actually this card by DT member Lisa that got me creating my card:

I meant to water colour rainbow colours but when I started I decided to just go with the flow and let the painting take me where it wanted me to go. I do love that about water colouring. And adding a few splashes is a lot of fun. When it was dry, I used a 'Happy' die sentiment to cut through my colours. Then.....this is the part I haven't tried before....I cut out lots of happy sentiments and glued them together to give some dimension. I so wanted to add gems or enamel dots but as I am entering this into a few die cut challenges I went with the butterfly.

I love the way this turned out and after finishing it I realised I had made another 'mixed media' card but CAS-who would have known!! (my texture is the base card as it is the egg shell card, although hard to see in the photo)

I am going to enter this into the following challenges:

The Cutting Edge Challenge-inspiration card using die cuts of some kind

AAA cards-water colour CAS cards

Virginia's view Challenge-die cuts

The Mixed Media Challenge-touch of nature
Moxie Fab Wonderful Words dies Challenge

             

Happy Birthday Kylie!

Goodness,we have another Birthday in the house today!!

Today I am here to say a very Happy Birthday to my friend Kylie. Many of you know Kylie in the crafting world and will know her as the owner of Addicted to CAS and Addicted to Stamps and More. I met Kylie in the blogging world and was lucky enough to join her Design Teams. We became close in the virtual world and then met this Easter IRL when Kylie stayed with me for a week. We had a ball and now have a friendship I believe will be life long.

She is one special lady and we could not let this day go by without have a Surprise linky Birthday Party for Kylie!! You can all join in by going to Loll's blog and linking up your card there.

Here is my card I made for my very dear friend:

I tired something new to me-stamping and clear embossing the rainbow of butterflies then water colouring them in all the colours of the rainbow. I tried to be creative by just going with the flow around the edge plus adding in a few splatters. I was not so sure about it but I thought Kylie would appreciate my attempt to step outside my comfort zone!!

Well Happy Birthday Hon and who would know you had finally reached 21!!

And don't forget to join the party and link up your card here with our hostess Loll-the link is open for 2 weeks so plenty of time to party on!!

I an entering this into the new challenge The Nixed Media Card Challenge Blog. This is a surprise to me as I thought I would never be able to enter this challenge as my cards are usually not suitable. But I read the definition of a mixed media card on the blog as was very happy to see that this card met the criteria...and I have to say I feel quite proud of myself for achieving this!! The theme for this challenge is 'nature'

I will also enter this into the 'Things with Wing' challenge at Crafty Creations and the 'Follow your Rainbow' at Paper Pretties