Wishing you a slice of happy!

Another week begins and I wish you all a slice of happy,

As many of you know I love to play along with the challenges at Fusion but to be honest the latest one stumped me and I nearly gave up. I got caught up with the ties and red polka dot. I had been thinking about it for over a week. a Then yesterday I decided I would enlarge the photo and look closely at the patterns on the ties (not the red polka dot!). I finally had a ping moment and decided to make a card designed...now this is specific...on the right hand side of the plaid bow tie!

And here it is:

I tired to copy the pattern as close as I could and then thought this sentiment was perfect for it. I was so pleased when I came up with this idea as creating this pattern was a new thing for me, yet so easy to do by following the photo. Plus once I got the idea it came together really quickly (even though it took forever to get an idea!)

This card is going to a neighbour who celebrates his Birthday in a few weeks.

Here is Fusion's inspiration

I will also enter it into the 'masculine' challenge at Just Us Girls

Have a fun week x

Fusion inspired!

Hello to all,

I have another card for you today inspired by the photo this week at Fusion. That pink card really caught my eye this week and DT member Kimberley's card I just loved. I thought about this card for a few days and was going to go all black and pink with a cityscape and then out of the blue this idea came to me:

I decided to go glitter CAS with the main focus on a pink card and I love how it turned out.

Here is the fab photo from Fusion

Edited to Add-I had meant to add this to Festive Friday but appear to have forgotten-all the glitter, shimmer and touch of pink in the photo are echoed in my card!

   

I have another card for this challenge tomorrow...I love the photo!!

Have a good day x

Addicted to Stamps and More #94

Time for my favourite week at Addicted to Stamps and More. It is our Clean and Simple Challenge.

The card I am sharing with you today was for my Dad's Birthday a few weeks ago. I made this when our lovely team leader Kylie came to stay with me and we got some time to craft.

Our sponsor this week is StampArt Design. Their store is full of some wonderful designs so don't forget to go and check them out here.

This week we are having a DT call. You will find details on our main blog here-do hurry as it is only for this challenge! While you are there check out the designs from the rest of our team. Then get inky!

Inkspirational and Addicted to CAS

Good Morning crafting friends,

Today I have combined 2 of my DT challenges and made one card.

At Inkspitational it is our colour challenge. Pink and Green are our colours for this challenge-you can use any shade and combine these with black, white and cream plus realistic colours for skin and hair.

At Addicted to CAS the lovely Kylie is our hostess and she has chosen this code word:

As many of you know I do love grunge but this week I challenged myself to make a grunge card using Inkspirational colours. I wanted to make a girly grunge card to show that grunge doesn't always have to for guys!

I used a mix of stamps from PTI and STAMPlorations. I really like the girly grunge look and think I will be doing this again!

At Inkspirational we have the fabulous Guest Designer Alycia, check out her card and the DT's creations here.

And at Addicted to CAS our Guest Designer is my very talented blogging friend Anita. You will see her CAS delight by visiting our blog here. Plus our DT have gone grunge crazy so don't forget to check out their cards! Bugaboo Stamps are sponsoring us at Addicted to CAS-you know how fab their store is!

I will enter this into the 'Birthday' challenge at Seize the Birthday

Have fun x

Addicted to Stamps and More #84

It is time for my favourite challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More, yes, you guessed it...it is our Clean And Simple challenge. We want to see a CAS project. 

This week we are very happy that Cathy is our Guest Designer, please take a look at her blog here, we just love her creations!

And this week I went all London on you again. In my defence I was prompted to be a couple of other challenges-details below.

I saw the London photo below at Inspired By challenges and knew I had to enter. And Laurel had commented that she couldn't wait to see what London buses were like. Then I saw the sketch this week at CAS(E) this Sketch and ping! This sketch gave me the opportunity to create a card to show Laurel what our buses are like....they either don't turn up for ages or they come along in groups of three! I have tried to show this by adding dimension (my road and first bus are die cut and popped up) and stamping off the bus stamp so it looks like they are behind each other. And instead of flowers you see in the sketch, I have Big Ben and a skyscraper!! I love how it turned out and I love the chain of inspiration that led me to it!

I am also going to enter this into the 'London' challenge at Moo-Mania

This week at Addicted to Stamps and More we are sponsored by StampArt Designs. You should check out their store-so many goodies!

And don't forget to see what the DT have made to inspire you.

Here is my inspiration this week

                 

Happy Stamping x

Lets Dance!

Happy Wednesday my friends. 

My card for today is for my MIL's partner who loves to ballroom dance. They have lessons a few times a week and will often spend Saturday nights at a dance. It is his Birthday soon and I have been a bit stuck on creating a card for him as I remember him telling me that cards for men always seem to have boats, fishing or planes on them and he didn't like them.

Luckily a few challenges came to my rescue. CASology's code word this week is 'Jump' and this directed my thoughts to dancing-there is a lot of jumping needed to get into those holds..think Dirty Dancing!! The 'Masculine' challenges at CAS on Sunday and Less is More focused my thoughts to make it CAS (as if I needed a prompt to do this!!). So I had an idea and now just needed to choose my stamps (Papertrey Ink) and a layout-this is where the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch helped me out.

It is hard to see from the photo but the sentiment is popped up on foam pads. I hope a dance themed cards will meet his approval!!

Edited to add-I am entering this into a new challenge I just came across-Cardz 4 Guyz and this week the challenge is CAS!

Before I go I wanted to remind you that there is still time to enter our DT call at Time Out Challenges. You have until midnight GMT tomorrow to enter!

Have a fun day and if you get chance to take some TIME OUT to craft why not enter our DT call at Time Out

                 

Addicted to Stamps and More #78

Its time for our 'Holiday' challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More. This can be any holiday you want or could be a holiday memory, a holiday destination.....anything holiday related! This week Gemma is joining us again as our Guest Designer. Please check our her blog here, I am sure you will love what you see!

Today I am posting my last Christmas card. Late I know, but I didn't get around to posting it before Christmas so this challenge gave me the ideal opportunity! Yes, it is London themed and was for my hubby. He didn't think it was CAS enough for him, so he did get another one as well. But I do really like this one and wanted to share it with you!

This week Deedee Digis are our sponsor and you could win 3 digis sets!

Now it is your turn to join in the fun but before you do please check out the fab inspiration from our DT here.

Addicted to CAS #29

Happy New Year to all Addicted to CAS lovers!
This month we are so pleased we have Nancy joining us as our Guest Designer!

We are here with our first challenge of 2014. This week our hostess is the very talented Loll. Loll this week has chosen 'die cuts' as our inspiration.

I was very tempted to go with a London City scene but thought perhaps you had seen too many of them from me! London will be back but for this week I went all French on you and created this:

For the background I used a Stamplorations mixed media stamp, randomly stamping it and masking it to give this faded look. I then stamped the Eiffel tower in 2 different purple inks and added my die cut Eiffel Tower with foam pads to give dimension. I was pleased with the way this turned out. It has actually already been posted as a thank you for a very gorgeous Christmas gift.

This week we are very pleased to have Deedee's digis as our sponsor who are offering our winner 3 sets of digital stamps. 

Before you get die cutting, check out the fabulous projects from our DT here and then join in the fun.

Great to have you all back xx

I will also enter this into

Keep it Simple-Anything Goes

I love London!

Hello my friends,

My card today is celebrating the city I love! Good old London Town!

I had one of those rare 'ping' moments when I saw Julie's card at CAS(E) this Sketch. I loved Julie's card and the idea for my card just popped into my head and off I went and created this:

I wish I had made a few more like this for my London Buddies. I had made one similar for my hubby (which I will post another day) but I think this is better-I think I like the layout and the little sentiment at the bottom seems to really suit this sketch.

I want to remind you of Nonni's Christmas challenges that are still going on. One is for stamping and one is for stash. This card could be used for both as the embossed hills of snow are scrap paper with a little bit of ink and glitter on the edge. Pop over to Nonni's blog and you will see the links on the right hand side of the page. You could win stamps sets from Stamplorations (my sentiment here is from a stamplorations set)

I am also going to enter this into the CAS Christmas challenge at Make My Monday

Have a fun day x

Lets Dance!

Happy Sunday my crafting chums,

I took a break from making Christmas cards yesterday and made this card using a silhouette stamp from Stamplorations and the sentiment is from PTI

The silhouette has been heat embossed and gives a lovely texture IRL. I have had this ribbon for ages and have only used it once but the colours matched so well with my card it seemed the perfect finishing touch. And I actually found enamel dots the same colour, so it all came together.

I do love black embossing on kraft!

I am going to enter this into the following challenges;

Stamplorations-stamps and silhouette

Allsorts-anything but Christmas

Casology-ribbons

In the Pink-embossing

Fan-Tastic Tuesday-CAS

Now I am off to decorate our Christmas tree. Have you done your Christmas decorating yet??

More Gifts

Today I am popping in to share a gift bag I made after I saw the challenge at Make it Monday-to decorate a Kraft bag. I had a little gift that needed to be posted to a dear friend and this challenge inspired me to have a go at making my own gift bag. I decorated my bag with a couple of PTI snowflake dies and a vintage brad. The design is very CAS, just how I like it, and perfect for sending in the mail. I added some silk ribbon to finish the bag and a plain sentiment that I thought matched the style of my bag. I hope my friend likes the packaging of her gift!

Before I go today I wanted to let you know about a fun event that my fellow teamie Christine on Addicted to CAS to running every day in December. It is an Advent Calendar event where each day she will post a crafting video with different techniques. I watched yesterday and learnt some valuable tips. Not only is Christine sharing her skills but also there are some great prizes up for grabs. So pop over to her blog here and join in the fun.

I am going to enter this into the following challenges:
Make it Monday-decorate a gift bag
KIS-Snow
52 Christmas Card Throwdown-gifts of the season
Inky Impressions-gifts and presents 

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

Thanks!

Hello crafting buddies,

As many of you know I have been in hospital and am still recovering but I am pleased to say that I felt a bit better today and actually got to do some crafting. My mojo seems to be a little poorly too but is slowly returning-it had better hurry up as I have a lot of Christmas cards still to make!

Times have been tough recently but I have a lot of people to thank for helping me cope. My blogging friends, Nonni and Kylie who chatted with me on line at all hours of the day and night, my wonderful Husband who visited me every night after work and had his dinner sat at my bedside (the nurses kept telling me how lovely he was!), my cousin Lynn who was always on hand with sound advice and encouragement, and a big thank you to all of you in blog land who kept creating wonderful cards for me to view. And finally, a big thank you to my Parents who visited me, looked after me when I got home and comforted me when I called crying too many times!! And my card today is for them........a big thank you Mum and Dad x

I used my new PTI city scape stamps and dies to create this thank you card.

I am going to enter this into the following challenges:

Creative Moments-CAS and anything goes

Card Crafter's Circle-thankful

Hiding in My Craft Room-thanksgiving.

I am so pleased to be back with you and see you soon x

Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #69

Its time for my favourite challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More. Yep, you guessed right.........it is our CAS week. That means we want to see Clean and Simple projects only this week.

Here is mine:

For my layout I used the sketch this week from CAS(E) this Sketch and also the theme of grunge from Just Add Ink. I saw these 2 challenges and had a 'ping' moment. I knew which combo of stamps I wanted to use. I have combined CAS-ual Friday Stamps, Stamplorations Stamps and the stamps from the 'grunge' set at PTI. I had a lot of fun stamping this card and just added a few gems and embossing for subtle texture.

I am also going to enter the 'be inspired' challenge at Keep it Simple-my inspiration coming from the sketch and the idea of a grunge themed Xmas card.

Our DT have some outstanding CAS projects for you. Please take a peek here to be inspired! And this week are have Nicecrane Designs sponsoring us. Our winner will get a $20 gift voucher for their store.

Can't wait to see your CAS creations. Have fun stamping x 

   

I did it!!

Today I have made my last card for Jackie's Pantone Colour Challenge. The deadline is tomorrow so I have just managed it. The final colour I had to do was Monaco blue and I have been thinking all week about this and have struggled. Inspiration was still escaping me this afternoon so I decided to browse a few of my favourite challenges. And it finally happened........3 challenges all seem to speak to me and off I went and created this card (the photo is not so great but the dark nights are drawing in and I didn't want to wait until tomorrow to share this with you......sorry I was just excited I had finally cracked the last colour!!)

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

Now the 3 challenges that inspired me:

• Runway Inspired-I took my inspiration from the netting and the blue pattern on the dress-I just reversed the colours. And added a tag of silver/white mesh to represent the netting.

• Festive Friday-I have been following this challenge and my favourite blogger and cousin Lynn enters regularly and I have been wanting to join in but this is the first time I have! The challenge is Silver, White and Blue. My medallion is actually heat embossed with silver snow white embossing powder that does sparkle a bit more IRL.

• CAS(E) this Sketch provided me with the perfect lay out for my card.

So, Jackie...........I have done it! And if you still haven't joined in the fun to win a custom designed blog header for you or a friend then check out the details here. You don't have to do all 10 colours, you can do just one as the it is a random draw.

Enjoy the rest of your day my crafting chums x

Inkspirational Challenge #32

At Inkspirational this week it is our colour challenge and these are the colours we are challenging you with:

And my card using these colours:

I used light pink ink to sponge some card stock. I then ripped up some post it notes to mask off an area to stamp the text. I really wanted this to be on a white card base but the kraft really seemed to work the best.

This month Eclectic Anthology are our sponsors and our monthly winner will receive a $30 gift voucher to spend in their store!

Now it is your turn-you have until Tues 6pm CMT to play along and don't forget to pop over to take a peek here at the super projects are DT have created for you.

Have fun x

Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #57

Wednesday means it is time for a new challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More. And this week is 'Make your Mark' challenge. Your entry must include use of some kind of marker-promarkers, crayons, pencils, water paints etc.

I tried something different this week. I had a go at the defined watercolour technique. Check out this video here to learn more about this technique.  I had so much fun doing this and ended up covered in paint but happy!

I have used the 'watercolour wonder' stamp set from PTI and the sentiment stamp is from Fresh Squeezed Stamps.

I used a small travel set of watercolour stamps I was given as a gift and memento inks. I would urge you to give this a try, I felt really arty doing this...........we can all fool ourselves!!

This week as a prize to the winner our DT are offering the following 2 image sheets from the the fabulous Nicecrane Designs.


                       

If you are not aware of Nicecrane Designs please take a peek at the store here. And here is a note from the owner Ignacio:

I have been a Photoshop Instructor for more than 6 years ago,,,,,, and I love Graphic Design ,,,,,,,it is my passion,,, I love anything about Graphic Design, new techniques, software and tips and tricks. I am also  FAN of Japanese Culture , especially about Ukiyo-e and Washi craft,,,,,and I love Japanese Origami,,,,,,

Nice to meet people from different countries to share hobbies and practice my English.

And don't forget to pop over to our blog to check out here what how our DT have 'made their mark' to inspire you.

Now it is your turn to get inky x

Friends are Stars!

Happy Friday Eve my crafty, starry friends,

I had a request to make a card using my 'Friends are stars' sentiment from Fresh Squeezed Stamps. I have known all week I wanted to use the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch and Donna's DT card provided me with great inspiration. I have already made one card this week using this sketch but do love it and knew this sentiment would be perfect for this. I saw the great colour combo this week at ColourQ and this was all I needed to get stamping. 

And this is what I created:

(hover over image with mouse and click to pin to pinterest)

This card is a mix of stamps from Fresh Squeezed Stamps and PTI. I love black and orange together and think this watermark stamp in orange gives the whole card a dramatic feel. The sparkle on the stars is from a gelly roll sparkle pen-perfect for starry friends!
I am also going to enter this into the CAS challenge at Whimsical Designs

Enjoy your day x