You're Special!

Happy Friday,

I am popping in quickly with a CAS card for a special friend who has a Birthday just around the corner. I am entering this card into the 'friends' challenge at Addicted to CAS.

This was my first go at using clear embossing powder with coloured ink and I really like how it gives the flowers a shine-hard to see in the photo but IRL it just adds a little bit extra texture to the card. I added a few pearls to the centre of the flowers just to make my card extra special for my friend.

I will also enter this into the 'kraft' challenge at totally paper crafts.

Have a great weekend my friends x

Time for Summer?

We are still waiting for Spring in London so today my card is to cheer us up and to look forward to some much needed sun!

The idea for this card came from the photo challenge this week at Addicted to Stamps and More and the 'travel' code word at Casology Doesn't this photo make you dream of the Summer and travelling for your hols???

At first I was going to do a 'drink' inspired card until I saw Kylie's card here and I loved her idea of flip flops so went in that direction instead. I remembered by cousin Lynn sent me this flip flop card and decided this would be perfect to case. And here is my version:

The twine is meant to represent the straw hat in the photo. And the wood in the middle is to represent the deckchair. This wood is actually a kebab stick cut up to fit the size of the card!!

Oh come on Summer, hurry up! Until then we have our dreams.
Happy Stamping my friends x

Muse #12

At the Muse Club I loved the design of the inspiration card here by Therese. I decided to follow the design just changing up a few things. I went for a small square card as I wanted the design to almost fill the page and here is what I came up with:

I have coloured the die cut with promakers and just stamped the leaves onto this pink swirl card base.
If you haven't played along at the Muse Club I urge you to join in the fun, you get to visit each others blogs and really do get to see some fabulous cards.

I will also be entering this into the 'die cut' challenges at:
Lexi's Creations
Stamp and Create

And here is Therese's card



Happy Stamping x

Chevrons and Flowers.

Today my card is for two challenges. One I have played along with many times, CAS-ual Fridays (flowers and chevrons) and one brand new challenge Fusion Card Challenge. With this new challenge you can choose either the sketch or the photo to inspire you or you can create FUSION by combining the two.
I decided to go with FUSION for my first go and here is the sketch and the photo:

To be honest I thought I was going to give this week a miss as my ideas weren't working. Then this morning I   was reading Susan's post and her cards and ideas on using stash gave me an idea and off I went!  Susan was urging us to use our stash and had made some cards using brads-you can check them out here. So I decided to hunt out some brads that haven't been used for months and see what I could make and then I remembered the Fusion challenge....could I make a chevron pattern using the brads and bakers twine........what do you think??

I was quite pleased with this and actually all of this is from my stash.

I like this Fusion challenge as it seems like it will be run like the Muse Club where the participants get to vote on each others card. I have had such fun with the Muse club as you get to visit other crafters blog and get to see some fabulous creations and meet new people who without this challenge I may never have come across. And I am guessing this new challenge will do the same.

And as my card is flowers and chevrons and is pretty CAS I thought it was perfect for this week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays.

Have a great week x

Another one layer card!

Happy Friday Eve,

This week I am still recovering from my time in hospital and have not felt like doing much but this has given me an opportunity to do some crafting and get my mojo back in gear. I will be returning to my DT work in a few weeks so have been making a few cards for that plus having a play along with a couple of challenges.

Today I had another go at blending and masking distress inks to make a one layer card. Two techniques which scare me but I have been giving it a go!
I was inspired to do this when I saw this weeks challenge photo at For Your Inspiration. Isn't the sky just the most amazing colours. And Karen's DT card here gave me the idea to base my card on these colours.

Also my plan had been to make a card today for the 'threesome' challenge Ardyth set for us this week at One Layer Wednesday. Here I used 3 stamped flowers and 3 colours-distress ink in 'broken china' and 'milled lavendar' for the masking and blending, and memento 'sweet plum' ink for the flowers.  So the inspiration I got from these challenges resulted in this:

The sentiment says 'sweet friend', a little easier to see IRL! I combined 2 different sentiments to make this. I have scored two lines either side of the masking which does look really nice but didn't show up so well in the photo. The fact it is snowing outside today didn't help much when taking the photo! But I have to say what I love most about this card is my blending, I really tried to make it have a splash of blue like the sky in the photo and was surprised it worked!

Happy Stamping x

One layer only!

Hello my friends,

Today I had a go at making a one layer card using some masking and inking. I was inspired to do this when I saw Jan's card here at this weeks Make My Monday challenge. I loved her distress inking and decided to give it a go. I am a little afraid of this and was unsure it would turn out o.k. I used 'broken china' distress ink,blending tool and post its to mask off the strip and I am actually quite pleased how it turned out. I loved the inspiration picture this week at paper smooches sparks so decided to go with butterflies, plus to me, the prominent colour in the photo is blue. I have used one of my much inked paper smooches sentiment. And here we go:

And as my butterflies are flying up and up I am going to enter this into the Casology 'up' challenge. And at Addicted to stamps and more the challenge is CAS, so naturally I have to enter!!

Here is Jan's card

                            

Have a great day x

Muse #11

After missing a few weeks of playing along at Muse club I was so happy when I saw Laurie's inspiration card for this weeks challenge. I loved the browns and greens in her card and what attracted me most was the script. I can't remember the last time I inked up my script stamps so this was a great opportunity to give it a go.
I just masked off an area using post it notes and stamped the script. Then used the 'summer silhouette'  SU stamp.
This card is for my Mum who came to sit with me in hospital, everyday my hubby was at work. I wanted to make her a card to show her how much this meant to me.

And here we are:

I will also enter this into the 'spring' challenge at Addicted to CAS.

And here is Laurie's inspiration card: