Inkspirational Card #1

Hello fellow crafting chums,

How did your week start? Well, you have got passed the Monday blues and, for our US crafters, you are one day closer to 'hump' day (makes me giggle every time I say that!)

Mynnette is starting up a new challenge blog and is looking for a DT. She has set 4 challenges for us to enter if we are interested in being part of her team. The challenge is called 'Inkspirational'. Today I am sharing with you my first card which is a 'case' of the card below:



As I am a fan of 'clean and simple', I decided to CAS 'case' this card. Instead of having a strip of patterned paper I decided to ink my own pattern taking the inspiration from the flower. I inked a different flower in 'lilac posies' memento ink, cut it out and raised it with a foam pad to give the card some dimension. I added a small, simple sentiment and just inked the edges of the white card. Naturally I used my much loved PTI linen impression plate. So here is my CAS 'case' of Mynettee's card. Sorry about the shadow-serves me right for taking photos when the sun has gone down......you live and learn!!

And Make it Monday this week is all about stamping the inside of your card. So again I have made this CAS  using the 'garden of life' stamp set from PTI

Enjoy the rest of your day x

Pink Hugs!

Happy Monday crafting chums,

It is breast cancer awareness month and over on Cas-ual Fridays they are reminding us to get checked out and also for us to remind our friends and loved ones. So girlies, if you haven't been checked out recently, get to it!
Cas-ual Fridays are also challenging us to make a card for an important woman in our lives. So today my card is for a friend who has just found out that she is clear of Breast cancer 10 years after she suffered very badly from this crippling illness. Unfortunately she has other troubles now and my card is for her so she knows I am sending her hugs.
I have used this weeks colour combo from Colourq, I do love pink and grey together!

And the inside of my card:

My crafting friend Asha always decorates the centre of her cards and I guess I have caught the bug as, if you come back tomorrow, you will see I have done it again!!

Hope your week is starting well and I must dash now as I am going on hols on Thursday and need to get organised x

Love and Hearts

Happy Friday crafting chums.

Today my paper creation is for the calendar I am making for a Xmas present. It is for February so obviously I went with a love and heart theme. I used the gorgeous sentiment from ginger house and combined it with some die cut heart I had stamped with my text stamp and inked with bright red (naturally!)
I will enter this into the love challenges on less is more and willow sketchie

Have a fab weekend all and happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian buddies x

New Year??

Not quite the New Year but I am in the middle of making 2 calendars for 2013. It is a long job as each month has a new header. I started the process a few weeks ago and am slowly getting through the months.
Today I did the main header for my Aunt and Uncle's calendar. My Uncle, Tony, has worked with cars all his life and now at 70 plus, when he should be sitting back and taking a well deserved rest, he still works everyday! It seemed right to base the header around cars so I used a number plate rubber stamp from Stampology. This set comes with numbers, letters and months to mix and match. I followed this week's great sketch from retro sketches



I wanted to make the background appear like a garage and tried out a number of different patterned paper but just couldn't get it right. I decided to make my own using the 'grunge' set from PTI to make memento London fog ink. It was fun inking this and I like the way it looks.
I will also enter this into the 'numbers' Just Us Girls challenge.

Challenge A Crafting Buddy!

My crafting chum Asha and I challenged each other to make a card in the style of each other. Asha's cards are stunning and very detailed. She loves patterned paper, embossing, ribbon, gems and most of all stitching. And all her stitching is hand-done, amazing! I got a gorgeous card from her in the post this weekend and was just overwhelmed by how talented she is and when you see the card in real life it is even more impressive.

Asha has had a go at CAS-see her version of CAS here. When I saw this card it inspired me to get going making a super detailed card. I decided to un-cas one of my own cards and this is the one I chose:

And here is the un-cas version (after hours of playing)

Please note-no stamping!! Patterned paper, 2 ribbons (the bottom one was a pressie from Asha), die cuts, embossing, flowers, gems and curved edges!! Pretty non cas and really not my style but I kinda like it!
Then when I thought my work was done I remembered that my crafting chum always decorates the inside.....so when I am faced with a challenge I can't give up. And here is the inside:

I will be entering this into the die cutting challenge over on totally gorjuss

This was a lot of fun, so why not challenge one of your crafting chums??

So Asha.........how did I do???

Play Date Cafe 151

Happy Tuesday,

I am just popping in quickly to share my card for this week's Play Date Cafe challenge. This week the colour combo is wine, pumpkin and moss, a very Autumn palette with a hint of mulled wine to warm us up for the fast approaching winter!

I have used the 'garden of life' PTI stamps for the background and sentiment.
I will also enter this into the 'friendship challenge on eureka stamps

Have a happy Tuesday xx

Masking Monday

A new month begins and one day closer to Christmas!

Today I have had a go at masking for the challenge this week on One Layer Wednesday. I came found this site when checking out Karen's blog here. If you haven't seen Karen's site before, check it out, she is a master of CAS! I decided to really keep to the 'one layer' rule and add no gems, twines, ribbons or layers and see how I got on.

I had a few attempts but am happy with this one:

Autumn has well and truly set in now, so best to get crafting on those Xmas cards now, so in December you can kick back and enjoy more Xmas cheer!

Have a jolly week, crafting chums x